Greece’s Recent Debt Default 
03/11/12
by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2012.
In a recent news item, Greece has defaulted on its debt. One problem is government workers that collect a paycheck but are not working a full week. 
Another problem Greece has, apparently, is failure to enforce tax laws. I read of a traveler to Greece who purchased something there. After the purchase, they asked for a receipt. They were told, “Oh, if you want a receipt, we’ll have to charge you the higher price that includes sales tax. 
Apparently, this is widespread in Greece, that the government is being cheated out of sales tax—-taxes that would help pay what the government owes if they were better at enforcing tax law.
American gangster, Al Capone, was put into prison not for his many gangster activities, which were harder to prove, but for income tax evasion.
In the movie, "The Untouchables," staring Kevin Costner and Sean Connery, the FBI accountant was always trying to get accounting evidence against Capone.  Actually, Capone's financials were not essential to proving income tax evasion.  
Capone's lifestyle of living in expensive hotels, eating at expensive restaurants, riding in an expensive, bullet-proof limo, etc., was sufficient to show that he was living the life of a rich man, and must therefore have had the taxable rich man's income necessary to support that lifestyle.
Similarly, the expenditures of prosperous Greek business people who cheat on sales tax payments to the government can be proven to have more income than they're paying tax on.
Under-cover police could be sent to Greek merchants, perhaps a man and a woman could be sent, posing as husband and wife to make a purchase. After the purchase during which the sales tax was illegally avoided, a police team would then come in and arrest the crooked sales person, and shut down the store until disposition of the case, with perhaps confiscation of all merchandise in the store. 
Get the arrest into the news, and on TV. When word starts to get around that cheating on sales tax will land you in jail, the government will start collecting more sales tax. 
Perhaps Greece won’t have to default on its debt again.