『Greece’s Generation of Adult Children』のカバーアート

Greece’s Generation of Adult Children

Greece’s Generation of Adult Children

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Welcome to this week’s Planetwonk briefing — your weekly download of the stories that don’t make it onto the postcards.We’ve expanded our footprint: you can now listen to this briefing as a podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite app.Can’t Get In, Can’t Stay: Greece’s Two-Way Housing SqueezeHere is a number that explains modern Greece better than most economic reports: 30.9.That is the average age at which young Greeks leave their parents’ home. Only Croatia is higher, at 31.5. The EU average is 26.3. In Finland, people are packing boxes at around 21, which means a Finn can be on their second flat before a Greek has finished the first conversation about moving out.Now put a face on the number. Picture a 29-year-old with a degree, a job, a tax number and a mother who still asks whether he has eaten. Not a teenager sulking in his room: a fully functioning taxpayer sleeping under a poster he put up in 2011. And he has plenty of company. Three in four Greeks aged 20 to 29 still live with their parents, according to the OECD, one of the highest shares among its members. The sons, incidentally, hold out nearly three years longer than the daughters.It is tempting to file all this under culture: the Sunday lunch that runs into Monday, the laundry that somehow still arrives home in a bag. Culture plays a part. Greek researchers note that moving out has traditionally waited for marriage, and flat-sharing never really caught on. And let’s be fair to the family home: it is warm, it is rent-free, and the fridge refills itself. For many, less a trap than a very comfortable cushion.But ask young Greeks themselves, and the real star is arithmetic. In a survey of 1,500 working under-30s by the research institute of the GSEE trade union confederation, about seven in ten said their income does not cover basic needs, and 62 percent said they remain financially dependent on their families. The OECD adds that Greek workers under 30 earn roughly 40 percent less than their peers elsewhere in the EU and OECD, adjusted for purchasing power, in a year when Greece’s economy outgrew the eurozone’s. Growth, it seems, has not yet been forwarded to this address.Now try buying. A newly built 70-square-metre apartment in Athens costs roughly sixteen years of average gross pay — before food, bills, taxes, transport or the occasional attempt to enjoy being alive. No wonder that in Greece, moving out often means buying, at an average age of around 35 according to European housing research cited in the Greek press, and frequently with the family’s help: a contribution, an inheritance, a flat passed down like a family recipe. Renting is no escape hatch either. With the minimum wage at €780 net a month, wages struggle to keep up with rents, and residents compete with tourists for the same apartments. It is hard to outbid someone who is only staying the weekend.Why not simply build more? Because in Athens a building site is one shovel away from becoming an archaeological dig, and the views of the Acropolis are taken very seriously. Some sites face strict limits on height and development. Still, before we blame the ancient Greeks, note that most Athenians live outside the most heavily protected historic zones. The rules are part of the explanation, not the whole of it. Pericles is not personally refusing your permit.Getting in is one problem. Staying in is another, and in a household where grown children live with their parents, a parent’s loan is everyone’s problem. Borrower associations have taken their demands to the Finance Ministry: a ban on foreclosures of primary residences, tougher oversight of loan-servicing companies, rent caps and more social housing. The government has its own answer — a bill in public consultation that would generally cap claims on qualifying overdue loans at three times the original capital and give servicers deadlines to respond to settlement requests. It is not law yet, and a cap would not refund what borrowers have already paid.Critics say that does not go far enough where interest has inflated debts. Lenders and their defenders reply that if contracts cannot be enforced, credit gets pricier or scarcer for everyone. Both have a point, which is what makes this a dilemma rather than a slogan: how to protect a family’s home without scaring off the money that lends against homes.The result: a generation old enough to work, vote and pay taxes, not yet able to afford a front door of its own — and parents hoping the house they all share stays theirs.Welcome to the Café Economy: Who Picks Up the Bill?If you have ever ordered a frappé in Athens and been served by someone with a master’s degree, you have already met the subject of this story.A paper from the London School of Economics’ Hellenic Observatory, titled “The Café Economy,” argues that Greece’s recovery after the bailout years leaned heavily on one sector: accommodation and food service. ...
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