The problem with Greek economy is basically the huge inefficient and very well paid public sector that drains the economy. For example an employee in the private sector will typically get paid 14 to 20 thousand Euros per year and will have to work 8 â 10 or even 12 hours per day. On the other hand the typical public sector employee will get double that money and will work productively 2 â 3 hours per day spending the rest of the time reading a newspaper or surfing the net. As an extreme example a public sector dockworker can get paid even 100,000 or 120,000 Euros per year. Some public sector employees get retired at a very early age (55 year old or even 50 year old) and continue to get paid their full salaries until they pass away. And of course once they get hired in the public sector it's unconstitutional to lay them off.