Sophia N. does
English language communications and PR in Athens. She is Danish and
lived in the US for many years, but has been living in Greece for about
the last 20 years...
...I've been an immigrant all my life...
...I think that both my generation and my kid’s generation can expect a
lower standard of living, statistically, than our parents. My parents’
generation was probably a peak, and things have gone down since then.
There have been significant shifts in how the labour market is
organised, which have had repercussions not just for Greece, but more
generally. The situation in Greece is extreme. However the 2008 meltdown
had serious repercussions in many other countries as well, especially
for working people. I have American friends who are in my age range, and
they’re getting fired from upper management level jobs, lawyer jobs,
you know, things which 30-40 years ago if you had a job like that with a
big corporation you never got fired, unless you did something
completely outrageous! You know, took off all your clothes at the
Christmas party and threatened the boss with a knife or something! And
you would have retired with a nice pension, with benefits, etc etc. Now
its not like that. So most people basically have to face the fact that
they are going to have many different jobs during their lifetime, they
have to “invent their own jobs”, “gig economy” and all this nonsense,
which basically means that working people are getting screwed...
