Feb
15
By Paolo von Schirach
February 15, 2012
WASHINGTON – The President of Greece, Karolos Papoulias, made headlines by criticizing the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schauble, because he has said unkind things about Greece being a bottomless pit, or something to that effect. So, the old patriotic President got irritated and reacted against the arrogance of these Northern Europeans, (you have to add the Dutch and the Finns to the mix), who –think of that– have little confidence in Greece being able to put its house in order. Like they have no cause for being skeptical, right?
Greek President gave up salary
Beyond that, President Papoulias had already made a political gesture for home consumption by refusing to get his salary. This is his way of saying that he as President will do his bit to lighten the country’s debt burden. All very good and very patriotic.
However, one detail is worth mentioning. Do you know how the much he makes? Well, he makes the equivalent of $ 370,000 a year. If you consider that the post is almost entirely ceremonial, since the real executive powers in Greece are with the Prime Minister and the line Ministers in the cabinet, this was a pretty good salary for doing essentially nothing, aside from ceremonial duties.
US President makes $ 400,000; Greek counterpart (only ceremonial duties) makes $ 370,000
In contrast, the US president, who is the real chief executive of the nation, with full responsibility to run the entire federal government, makes a just a bit more: $ 400,000. And this is recent. The salary used to be only $ 200,000. So, $ 370,000 for doing very little, and $ 400,000 for running the government of a super power, the world largest economy, overseeing a 3.8 trillion budget, including the largest military in the world. If you use the US President as reference, isn’t there a bit of a discrepancy between lavish compensation and work actually required of a Greek President?
The Greeks have lived in a fantasy land
The point here is that the Greeks have lived in a fantasy world of public jobs for everyone, huge benefits and inflated salaries for way too long. A ceremonial head of state of a small country who makes almost the same as the US president who has a real job provides an instructive comparison. The fact that Papoulias now decided to forgo his pay is noble. What is absolutely ridiculous is that he was getting it to begin with.
Print This Post