After we sat down, we asked the waitress for a coffee. She thanked us for our order and immediately turned and walked out the front door. My friend explained that the owner of the bookstore/café couldn’t get a license to provide coffee. She had tried to just buy a coffee machine and give the coffee away for free, thinking that lingering patrons would boost book sales. However, giving away coffee was illegal as well. Instead, the owner had to strike a deal with a bar across the street, whereby they make the coffee and the waitress spends all day shuttling between the bar and the bookstore/café. My friend also explained to me that books could not be purchased at the bookstore, as it was after 18h and it is illegal to sell books in Greece beyond that hour. I was in a bookstore/café that could neither sell books nor make coffee.
Note from Athens: Feeling on the ground has palpably changed « Euro Area Debt Crisis by Megan Greene
I realize that the conventional wisdom is that the Greek welfare state is dooming them. But that isn’t really true. The lost economic output from the insane regulatory processes combined with the lack of tax collection is what is screwing up the Greek economy. Those who insist we cut medicare and social security are learning the wrong lesson from Greece.
