Jobs Come From Profits And So Do Debt Payments

... resulting in cases like Georgios Levedogiannis.

At the moment, his poverty is not yet visible. Levedogiannis wears a clean shirt, smart blue slacks and a new-looking bag slung around his waist. He clearly makes an effort. But there are tears in the man's eyes as he says: "If I had work, I wouldn't do this to myself." He says he has "zero" money and that he sleeps at the Red Cross, eats at the church and dreams of a different time, a time where there was still work. "If you don't have connections, no one will take you," he explains. "And it's only getting worse."

Ekathmimerini laments what is happening to the Greeks who create the profits.

Other than the unemployed and those who have been hit hard, there is also a dynamic section of Greek society that finds itself at a dead end. It is in no way responsible for the troubles of the country because it paid its taxes, it didn’t cheat the state or depend on it, or on political parties and union for its livelihood. Now, however, this sector of society is being forced to experience a drastic drop in its standard of living and to pay taxes from the little money it managed to squirrel away for a rainy day.

Anything that eats at profits, whether they be personal or corporate, eats away at jobs since all jobs come from profits. The debt ceiling debate in the US right now could be termed a jobs debate. Do we want fewer jobs in the future in order to have more money to spend right now? That was the choice the Greeks made even though they didn't understand it at the time.