>anecdotally from locals reporting of income is less than 10% of actual
Factually this is BS. While there's underreporting in Greece, way more than "10% of actual" income is reported -- closer to 70% or 80% [1].
And one of the reasons it's not higher it's that there are quite high taxes (including a 24% VAT on most purchases) for little to no return from the state (no good healthcare, no money for schools, no road maintenance, etc). It's like sinking money down the drain.
([1] In fact a study by the Applied Economic Research at the University of Tübingen in Germany puts the whole Greek "shadow economy" to 20% of the GDP -- for comparison Germany's is around 10% and USA's around 5%: https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/02/09/where-... ).
Factually this is BS. While there's underreporting in Greece, way more than "10% of actual" income is reported -- closer to 70% or 80% [1].
And one of the reasons it's not higher it's that there are quite high taxes (including a 24% VAT on most purchases) for little to no return from the state (no good healthcare, no money for schools, no road maintenance, etc). It's like sinking money down the drain.
([1] In fact a study by the Applied Economic Research at the University of Tübingen in Germany puts the whole Greek "shadow economy" to 20% of the GDP -- for comparison Germany's is around 10% and USA's around 5%: https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/02/09/where-... ).