The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    INTERVIEWKorean adoptee in Germany reunites with birth family after 42 years

  • 3

    Korea to start mass production of KF-21 in 2024

  • 5

    Zoo shares sad story of what caused Sero the zebra to escape

  • 7

    Sandstorm from China forecast to push up fine dust levels in Korea

  • 9

    Daughter of North Korean dictator seen wearing $1,900 Dior jacket

  • 11

    Will Apple Pay launch boost local iPhone sales?

  • 13

    INTERVIEW'Welcome to world of art therapy'

  • 15

    INTERVIEWForbes-listed entrepreneur pursues partnerships with Samsung, LG, SK to help Ukraine

  • 17

    Indonesian students advise Korean bank on entering Indonesian market

  • 19

    Long viewed as an outsider, conceptual artist grabs global spotlight in his twilight years

  • 2

    Zebra captured after escaping from Seoul zoo

  • 4

    Will exempting foreign nannies from minimum wage boost Korea's birth rate?

  • 6

    Yoo Yeon-seok threatens to sue people spreading accusations about him

  • 8

    Kim Min-gyu, Go Bo-gyeol bid farewell to 'The Heavenly Idol'

  • 10

    Retailers rush to adopt Apple Pay system

  • 12

    INTERVIEWExpert pitches Laotian rural reform to solve NK's chronic food shortages

  • 14

    Kim Nam-gil to embark on Asia fan-meeting tour

  • 16

    Lee Som, Ahn Jae-hong to play married couple in Tving's new series

  • 18

    US Fed lifts key interest rate amid banking sector fears

  • 20

    Samsung, SK chiefs prepare for trips to China amid intensifying 'chip war'

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
Sat, March 25, 2023 | 07:06
Guest Column
Austerity train wreck
Posted : 2023-03-14 16:30
Updated : 2023-03-21 09:28
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link

By James K. Galbraith

AUSTIN ― In a flash, the savage destruction of Greece foretold in 2015 (and before) is back in the news, owing to a grisly tragedy on one of Europe's smallest railroad systems. On Feb. 28, a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train traveling in the opposite direction on the same track, resulting in the obliteration of the lighter, faster passenger train.

According to The Guardian, "the trains were traveling on what appears to be a well-maintained stretch of electrified mainline." Take a moment to let the irrelevance of that observation sink in. We are talking about a head-on collision. Of course it wasn't the track.

Was it a "tragic human error," then, as Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis quickly announced? The stationmaster at Larissa has been arrested and faces a long prison term. How convenient that there is someone to blame.

Who was the stationmaster? Journalist Dimitris Konstantakopoulos reports that he "was a 60-year-old man of limited experience, alone in a position of great responsibility." The New York Times adds that he had only six months of training.

Why were humans involved at all? Apparently, automated systems to prevent two trains from approaching each other on the same track were not installed. And why not? Evidently, such things are expensive. They add to costs without contributing to revenues. To ensure that such safeguards are in place, the firm hand of regulation must override the profit motive.

Worse, Konstantakopoulos reports that, according to a former director of the Trainose company, "The last system of tele-management of the railways was deactivated in 2020." Since then, the former director "stopped traveling by train." Worse still, The New York Times notes, "Rail workers say the traffic lights were always red because of years of technical failures. Workers were left to warn one another of oncoming trains only by walkie-talkie." And the president of the train drivers' association told the BBC, "Neither the indicators, nor the traffic lights, nor the electronic traffic control work."

Trainose, Greece's railway operator, was purchased from the Greek state in 2017 by Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato. Since the Italian company was the only bidder, we can infer that it got an excellent price. The privateers ― excuse me, the privatizers ― did just what the profit motive demanded: they cut costs, not only by eschewing safety equipment but also by shedding railway staff. There are only 800 employees today, down from 6,000 in 2010, though there are supposed to be 2,800. Having multiple sets of eyes on the rail line is after all redundant ― 99.9 percent of the time.

So, there was indeed human error. But which humans made the mistakes? Does responsibility lie with the lone stationmaster, or with Trainose (which last year changed its name to Hellenic Train)? The stationmaster is obviously a scapegoat. And since Hellenic Train's management did exactly what it was required to do, it can hardly be accused of making an error.

How about Mitsotakis? His government has regulatory power that it failed to exercise. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport had a responsibility to upgrade the network, but it did not do so. But that, too, was no error. The failure to regulate was in the service of the private firm's profit motive. The failure to upgrade was in the service of the government's austerity program.

What about former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who signed the terms of the 2015 surrender to Greece's creditors that led to the wave of fire-sale privatizations? Again, this was not done in error; it was the result of treachery, bad faith, and force majeure.

What about those who imposed the terms of austerity, deregulation, and privatization on the Greeks? The International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission ― the infamous troika ― took effective control of the Greek government in 2010 and again in 2015 and still run the show to this day. They also made no errors. They simply applied the dogma that had been prescribed by economists in the service of creditors. Theirs was victor's justice, executed precisely as intended.

The human error therefore lies elsewhere. It lies with those who devised, defended, and promoted the economic doctrines that have ravaged Greece, and with the rest of us who went along. We did so stupidly but with self-assurance, smugly accepting that free-market economics is the only option ("there is no alternative"), that regulation is an avoidable burden, and that private ownership is always better than public. Those in positions of power were complacent ― if not cheerful ― as these doctrines took hold in Greece and around the world. Ergo omnes in culpa.


James K. Galbraith, professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, is the author of "Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe" (Yale University Press, 2016). This article was distributed by Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).


 
Top 10 Stories
1Zoo shares sad story of what caused Sero the zebra to escapeZoo shares sad story of what caused Sero the zebra to escape
2Burnout: Cardiothoracic surgery residents work 102 hours a week Burnout: Cardiothoracic surgery residents work 102 hours a week
3North Korea will pay price for reckless provocations, warns Yoon North Korea will pay price for reckless provocations, warns Yoon
4Second daughter of Daesang chairman promoted to vice president Second daughter of Daesang chairman promoted to vice president
5More companies adopt electronic voting amid increase in shareholder activism More companies adopt electronic voting amid increase in shareholder activism
6Churches, Seoul gov't unite to fight low birthrate Churches, Seoul gov't unite to fight low birthrate
7What's next for Do Kwon? What's next for Do Kwon?
8FTC criticized for delaying approval for Hanwha's acquisition of DSME FTC criticized for delaying approval for Hanwha's acquisition of DSME
9Over 70% of firms unwilling to embrace longer workweek Over 70% of firms unwilling to embrace longer workweek
10Samsung Display strike looms due to deadlocked wage negotiationsSamsung Display strike looms due to deadlocked wage negotiations
Top 5 Entertainment News
1Yoo Yeon-seok threatens to sue people spreading accusations about him Yoo Yeon-seok threatens to sue people spreading accusations about him
2Kim Min-gyu, Go Bo-gyeol bid farewell to 'The Heavenly Idol' Kim Min-gyu, Go Bo-gyeol bid farewell to 'The Heavenly Idol'
3Kim Nam-gil to embark on Asia fan-meeting tour Kim Nam-gil to embark on Asia fan-meeting tour
4Lee Som, Ahn Jae-hong to play married couple in Tving's new series Lee Som, Ahn Jae-hong to play married couple in Tving's new series
5Long viewed as an outsider, conceptual artist grabs global spotlight in his twilight years Long viewed as an outsider, conceptual artist grabs global spotlight in his twilight years
DARKROOM
  • Turkey-Syria earthquake

    Turkey-Syria earthquake

  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group