The prosperity ‘of the many’

Claims by staff at some of the country’s biggest state hospitals that patients are staying in rooms without air conditioning – with a heat wave forecast to hit this week – are just the latest chapter in the sad history of declining infrastructure in Greece.

From the country’s electricity grid, where power outages have become routine, to the fleet of dilapidated buses and the poorly equipped security forces, it is clear that the policy of excessive budget surpluses has not only had an effect on the country’s middle classes; it has also deprived the state of vital funds, undermining its ability to provide basic services – services which are mostly needed by economically vulnerable citizens.

It is the quality of these services that determines the prosperity “of the many.”