A couple of days ago, the Greek parliament approved another Troika Diktat.
You do not want to know what it implies. But one minor fact is worth mentioning
for the benefit of all those who wish to know to what Promised Land the Divine
Euro is taking us.
The minimum wage in Greece is now 585 Euros per month. Before taxes. Another word for that is Gross. These are working people who
spent five days a week producing something useful.
Let’s now take a look at the Representatives
of the People, our MPs in the Euro Parliament. The last time I looked, these
fine folks earned a minimum salary of 7,665 euros (likewise before taxes, and a
fair number of them get more); on top of that they receive 287 euros for every
session of parliament they attend (12 in Strasbourg and 6 in Brussels); they
receive 17,000 euros each for assistance and staff (reportedly spouses and
grandmothers over 90 are quite popular as personal secretaries); and 4,000
euros for ‘administrative expenses’ (which until quite recently they did not
need to justify). Finally, they get airfare - I presume 4 times a month in the economy
class… - to whatever distant destination they call home.
These numbers being pretty old, muddled, and incomplete, I won’t even try
to be overly accurate. I calculate roughly, and conclude that every Euro MP
gets some 12,500 Euros a month, gross again, and costs some 35,000. There are
736 of them. So that whole chamber, whose workings and usefulness still escape
a stupid old sod like me, sends a tab of 25 million Euros to the European
taxpayer every month. Which makes about 300 million a year. I hope you all feel
you are getting your money’s worth.
But wait! It gets even funnier when we turn from the more-or-less
legislative to the soi-disant executive! As you all know, the EU has two
presidents (for Europe needs double of every half-baked office). President
Barroso of the Commission and President Von Rampage… I mean: Van Rompuy of the
Council. Both of these make the same so that there be no envy between them.
Their salary was fixed, after lots of extremely critical discussion in the Euro
Parliament and many cruel cuts, to the trifle of 298,495.44 Euros a year. That
is 24,874.62 a month. Let us be charitable and assume that they work 26 days a
month for that wage (Sundays off). It then turns into 957 Euros per day. That
is to say, that they nearly make twice in a day what a Greek youngster makes in
a month.
I laughed loudly when I once heard Nigel Farage quip that President Van
Rompuy made more than President Obama. Ah, the dear fellow always exaggerates
so horribly! But guess what? HE WAS RIGHT! Barack Obama makes 400,000 dollars a
year. With 1 U$ at 0,74 Euros that comes to 296,000 Euros. Hilarious?
Ridiculous? Scandalous? Why… we must remember that our two Euro Presidents have
a far harder job than that Washington loafer! And they don’t even get a private
jet or an official residence! Yet.
This evening, Herman van Rompuy will be voted in, democratically by his colleagues,
for another 2 ½ years as President. I still don’t know what he does precisely.
But they say he writes beautiful Dutch Haikus in between meetings of the
Council. Such a sensitive man… Such
an example to our young!
[POSTSCRIPT 14.30 p.m.: Let me give credit where it is due. I just learned that the Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, following the lead of Greek President Carolos Papoulias, has waived his 7,500 Euro per month salary. There is no love lost between me and mister Papademos; but he seems to be an honorable man. NOW EVERYBODY!!!]
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