With Greece delivering a resounding "no" to the European Union's bailout plan, we might see a very different Greece in the near future.
Greece choosing to refuse the bailout plan has a variety of implications economically and socially, according to The Telegraph, including:
Greece will leave the Eurozone
Or at least that is what the EU states, and it probably will happen. With Greece refusing the EU's deal, it will be cut off from long-term funding from the European Central Bank and will have to default more widely on its debts. The assumption is that it will effectively devalue by printing its own currency, and start again. However, both the Greek government and some financial analysts say there is no reason why it should not default on its debts, agree a new financing deal and stay in the euro. Although the EU will not want to agree, it may in the end prefer it to a breach of the principle that Eurozone membership is irreversible.
Greece will run out of money
The European Central Bank will have to decide sometime on Monday whether it will continue to extend its emergency financial lifeline to the Greek banks. The Greek banks are at risk because they are heavily influenced by their government's own debt. No one knows what will happen to the savers' money if the banks go bust because the government can't pay its debts. (Remember the debt won't just disappear, Greece will just have less help in paying it).
Greece will have to find a factory to print drachmas
British firms like De La Rue, which prints 150 currencies worldwide, are believed to have been contacted with a view to providing such services. It's done in great secrecy to prevent currency speculation. The other issue is the logistical challenges of switching a currency. All ATMs, computers and other machinery of commerce that bears the euro symbol will have to be adjusted - a process that would take months.
All of these leave Greece with one problem: Its economy will still be in tatters, a fact that Greece has already been preparing for, according to Yahoo! News.
Younger generation of Greeks lack of faith in the EU
This vote also implies that a major generational dynamic exists at the underbelly of all this. One poll from Antenna News in Greece found that 67 percent of Greeks under the age of 35 voted "no," illustrating just how much the seismic plates are shifting within European politics.
The former glories of the EU are lost on younger generations today, and with good reason. Whereas the EU once brought peace to Europe, it is now splitting certain countries apart. The fallout between Greece and Germany is a strong example of this.
What was once the EU's dream of creating a United States of Europe is quickly deteriorating. The policies and aspirations of an outdated EU has been deemed unfit by young Greeks in the 21st century.
The reason for their denial of the EU is glaringly obvious: both the single currency and the EU itself have done great harm to the prospects of young people who now realize that they don't need a single currency or a political union to be friends and trading partners with their neighbors.
Far more important to them than the EU is the concept of sovereignty, and recent events have illustrated just that.
