rise. adam raney, al jazerra, mexico city. and to keep up with all of the stories we have been following here on al jazerra you can go to our website aljazerra.com. aljazerra.com. and much more news throughout the day. thanks for your time. >> i'm ali velshi. "on target" tonight, gross is on the verge of bankruptcy. it desperately needs bailout cash. who will blink first in this dangerous game? the clock is ticking on a greek financial drama that has the official to become a tragedy for greece and the rest of europe. it is a tragedy that could have ugly implications for the entire global financial system if

greece doesn't pay its debts and gets bounced out of the euro zone. we don't know how stocks and bonds around the world would react if greece defaults on its debt but we do know that greece is pretty close to running out of money. but greece can't make its repayment on june 5th. that's why the country is desperate to get the payment of a bailout, $8 billion in june. but greece has managed to pay some debts by raiding a reserve fund, but those won't be enough, when it faces repayment of $9 billion. creditors are refusing to release the money, until greece enacts spending cuts. antiausterity government of prime minister alexis tsipras and its creditors.

payments and unemployment in greece is 25.7%, the high eggs in the euro zone and the -- highest in the euro zone, it it it is easy to understand, why they ask the country to make more sacrifices to get its financial house in order. but the greeks themselves didn't pay the government the amount to pave the roads and run the money, not paying taxes is a huge problem whose roots in greece are widespread and run deep. the ancient greek ruins always a magnet for tourists but today also a bargain. because after decades of terribly mismanaged public funds crufntion

and corruption much of the catastrophe comes from a culture of tax evasion. i spoke to many greeks about it. for obvious reasons some don't want to be identified. >> this is not just now. this is 50 years old. it is a legacy. left from our parents. >> to be honest with you, we don't have the mentality to pay taxes for a certain reason, the most important is let's say if you pay taxes, you expect to having something back. but here, what you take back you're paying your for your health care and so forth from our wages yet to get anything done you really got to go to the private system. our taxes aren't being put to good use basically. >> last year the government announced that greece is owed 76 billion euros, that is about $82

billion, $82 billion in unpaid taxes. but with an economy still reeling from the global financial crisis of 2008, greece only expects to collect about 10% of what it is owed. while tax evasion occurs across all income levels it is most rampant across middle and lower income greeks. that said, we heard plenty of stories about wealthy greeks systematically hiding their wealth to avoid taxes. alexis tsipras has vowed to crack down on 80,000 rich greek taxpayers. be tsipras named an anticonstruction czar if you will. he hopes to collect 2

many 7 euros of uncollected debt. he was president of an independent organization formed to identify greeks who were money-laundering through swiss banks. >> translator: i want to state we already know how much money was picked 41 greece and transferred to switzerland and other places, from 2010 and after. we have all the dates, we have the information. we know how much money was pulled out of greece and went to switzerland. therefore we have no problem with taxing it. >> like elsewhere in the world wealthy creeks have greeks have the be wealth to pay their the taxes. line john gianis, blames the tax problem ton wealthy. his business has lost about $18,000 a year. >> they've -- the rich people can hide

money. and avoiding paying taxes. i would say at that time middle class pays the fairest part of taxation in greece. >> this man is an associate at a law firm. he is unmarried, has no kids but does have a large extended family and like a lot of other hardworking greeks, won't mind chasing down the amounts they owe. >> the 400 rowrgs is euros is just enough to pay my bills. you do the math, i don't have enough to pay my taxes. >> but to truly dig themselves out from the country's financial ruin the culture of tax evasion must end for everyone at every income level. this

athenian is married and has a five-year-old child he owes 9,000 in personal taxes and another 5.5,000 in social security taxes. he hopes the new government follows through and forgives up to half what an ordinary greek owes. >> i wasn't approached by the tax office. i took advantage of a law passed in parliament, and i'm trying to pay back my taxes little by little. >> clamping down on tax paying won't be easy. when we come back, i'll talk to a teacher who says working off the books is the only way he can survive. >> for the past 30 years, the government has been taking taxes

from the middle class, that's only class that's been properly taxed in greece. >> guardianship imposed by the state >> they lose more rights than someone who goes to prison... >> what's being done to protect liberties in texas? >> i'm just a citizen trying to get some justice for an old man... >> an america tonight investigation only on al jazeera america

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perspective on the news. weeknights on al jazeera america. >> now that greece is so desperate for cash, the government is start ed cracking down on -- started cracking down on lower income greeks like teachers. i met a physics teacher in athens, he's got 30 years under his belt with a wife and two kids. he says that teachers are paid so low an amount that off the books jobs are necessary to survive. >> explain to me how you are paid. when you teach in class, your wages are declared. how does the off the books work

recorded? >> when you work it's all recorded and it's taxed 30%. that's unlivable. >> when the worker tries to declare everything they earn out of the shadows into the mainstream do they have to reduce the amount of tax they charge for people who do work off the books? >> do i believe the government needs the lower taxes and give us incentives in order to get out of this undocumented economy and into the mainstream mainstream. for the past 30 years the government has been taking money only from the middle class. that's the only class that's been properly taxed in greece. if you don't start taking taxes out of the other classes, be the situation will stay the same.

>> tell me about your colleagues. >> most of my colleagues are indeed doing private lessons. some of them do something else maybe but they all do something to displement their income. >> does this happen, younger students high school students middle cool, school into university? >> middle school to university and sometimes after that. >> what is the average salary for a teacher and how much does it cost to live a middle class life in greece? >> around $650 euros, over the years it gets to about a thousand but never more than that. to feed a family of four almost everybody needs to supplement. >> this government has proposed some changes to the education model.

what effect will the changes have? >> we actually haven't seen anything concrete coming out of this administration. it is or the torture for us. every government that comes into power the first thing they do is try put their stamp on education and the health system. >> i asked stelius, he told me teachers are easy for tax appraisers to find and he accepts his fate. but the new anticorruption czar should be cracking down on the superwealthy tax evaders. they are much better at hiding their tracks. on my visit i noticed a country that everyone knows how to get around the rules. cheating seems to be a way much life in greece even in some surprising places. corruption in greece is pervasive, from bribery at the

highest formation of media, to working greeks who don't disclose their income to avoid being taxed on it. >> translator: let me tell you the concept of corruption is so broad and vague that it can fall into a lot of things. it is certain that corruption and economic crime are often linked very closely and, in this sense, indeed tax evading is associated with corruption. >> the problem of corruption in greek society is so pervasive that it governs every day transaction is. >> absolutely. doctors, dentists, lawyers notaries, you name it. they give you a discount. and you do not declare. you do not ask for a receipt. >> this woman who asked us to protect her confidentiality, has worked in the tourism industry for 25 years. she told us she spent nearly $7,000 in dental care in the

past several years. she's always paid in cash. she has never gotten a receipt. we persuaded her to give us her dentist's name. most post security cameras and will only see patients by appointment. we found woman's dental office in this apartment block off a busy athens street. the nurse who answered the door was reluctant to let my producer to speak to anyone, or even ask the citizen 'tis if he provided receipts. >> he is the doctor and most of the doctors are not here today. so if you have any questions -- >> but you have patients here. >> i have to tell you, he is not here, i can't speak for him. he is one that should give you any answers for everybody. >> okay, may i ask you, then, do you accept cash or credit cards

as well? >> both. >> you do accept -- and can you confirm that you give every single -- >> i can't -- i can't give you any more answers, please. don't bring me any -- >> no that's fine. that's fine but you cannot -- >> and please turn the camera down please. >> tax evasion is absolutely everywhere in greece. more and more greek doctors who simply aren't making enough money and are being asked to pay higher taxes have come up with creative ways to dodge the tax man. some lie about the size of their homes. some offer discounts for cash payments minus receipts and some accept these fakalaki little greek envelopes and the money inside, expected for exchange of services and public officials in exchange for turning the other way. politician he in greece have spent the last ten years promising to fight this kind of

petty corruption, especially in the medical be profession, but former prime minister george papandrao. >> getting some forecast of payoffs, and international pharmaceutical companies are making a lot of money, at the expense of the taxpayer and the something simple why don't we make an experiment and put prescriptions online,. >> for transparency? >> we were able to finally get it through. it cut the cost of 50% and that 50% is equal to all the tax we have from properties today. >> .greece's new corruption czar

panageotus,. >> the first aim not only of this industry, is to improve public administration and to fix other things. >> and he believes that his office will live up to the promise of fighting corruption. >> look, i think you can fool a person for many years. i think you can fool all the people for a while. but you cannot fool all the people all the time. the first case that usually leads people to be disappointed by their political leadership is when people are disappointed by the political leadership's behavior. i myself have no intention to disappoint anyone with my behavior, so i have no concern whether i will disappoint the people who have a good idea of me and believe in me. >> up next it's the people versus creditors. the government came to power promising to end hated austerity

programs, but the residents are demanding they stay put. coming up, i'll speak to the person who promised that five years ago and ended up out of office.

>> in 2010 when greece received its first financial bailout the plan was to help the greeks get back on their feet within three years. instead, greeks are face being financial ruin and unnerving the global economy. the man who engineered the first bailout is george papandraou. this is his story. sending interest rates soaring, and hurting the government's ability to borrow money, but when a new prime minister took office he found a financial hole

bigger than anyone ever expected. more than 350 billion euros in public debt. the son and grandson of former greek prime ministers, responded with the biggest spending cuts greeks had seen and greeks took to the rates streets in violent protest. he was forced to resign. unemployment shot up from 10% then to 26% today. and talk about exit from the euro zone continues. could further damage europe's recession economies and reverberate into your retirement account. to date, greece has received 240 billion euros, doesn't have

enough money for its upcoming bailout. and that's something he says greece must avoid in all costs. he has even offered to join alexis tsipras in a unity government. he understands the difficult decisions that the current government faces but says it has little choice but to cooperate with lenders. i reminded him that a lot of the panic greece still faces today started with deficits his government uncovered in 2009. this is what he told me. >> what happened with greece, we said well we'll put our house in order but because we're linked with the euro it also became a question as to whether we have the confidence of our partners in the european union and whether they can vouch for us. >> without getting too technical you asked to trigger a support mechanism that had never been

triggered before in the euro zone. the euro countries has said if one of us is in trouble we help out and you called upon the rowshz eurozone to help and what happened? >> we couldn't at some point get out on to the markets and borrow at viable rates. so where do you go to borrow? bankruptcy. this is where we needed to create a confidence in the markets. and there were two things we needed to do. one was to have the time inside greece for greece to make the major changes so that we could say okay, we're going to make these reforms. and therefore, greece would be a more viable, more competitive economy. and therefore, we can get back out at the markets again. but secondly we also needed a show of support from the european union, particularly the

euro zone, where the euro is. and this is where i think one of the major mistakes was made by those in the -- by other partners in the euro zone, was that they were saying this is only a greek problem. >> was greece that different? the problems that the world learned about greece in those trying days was that people seemed to be less productive with their work time, they seemed to work less, they seemed to retire earlier. you know there were all sorts of structural changes which underscored how differently countries in the euro zone was how different greece was from germany, that was really the example that was being used. >> yes. first of all, the structural changes we needed to make we were actually pick forward. for example even with preelectoraly we were making reforms, open up the practices lawyers mechanics engineers and so on so that we could open up the market for the younger generation.

but we needed time to do this. we needed some breathing time. can you see that even in some of the more -- you can see even in some of the more advanced democracies it takes years to make major reforms. we had to do this in months, not years. and this is what we needed the support for. >> and greek restructuring was going to be an issue. >> greek restructuring would be at least year. the second, third problem was many felt the problem was the budget deficit that we of course had gone way over the master criteria, master criteria, 3% budget deficit. >> you were over 12. >> we were over 12 initially and then when eurostat came to greece and looked through the books, it came up with about a year or so to do so and it came up with 15.7%.

from 3 to 17.7% is a huge -- 15.sphefn%15.seven pers, that was a. >> austerity has gone too far and we need to pare back on it. at the moment they haven't had much success with that view. the europeans said hold on, you are still going to pay your debt and impose this austerity. >> i think there is a deal to be made, yes, we can bargain with our partners in the european union, i think they realize that emphasis on austerity has had a very negative effect in side lining if you like the priority of reforms. so that we now need and since we now have a primary surplus or at least had a primary surplus a few months ago, we don't really need more austerity. what we need is more emphasis on

the reforms to make our economy move and be more competitive. >> what is your sense now of how this plays out for greece? because as you're right, this is a long term problem but in fact, the world seems to be requiring short term solutions of greece. they are not letting up on their demand that greece has to do certain painful things, things that greeks themselves don't want to impose upon themselves through their government. >> first of all greece has made major sacrifices. for better or for worse, we have followed a praim program which has brought 25% cuts in gdp. huge unemployment. and a lot of pain for not only the poor but also the middle class which has paid very high taxes. so it's not true that we have not actually made things. however, what i say again is that the emphasis should have been less on cutting the budget

so quickly and more on pushing the reforms. so this is where i think we can find a solution with our partners in the european union. they should be less punitive obviously. but yes, demand that there be a clear road map for how we move forward and make the changes in greece and have them help us. >> and that is our show for today. i'm ali velshi. thank you for joining us. >> on hard earned, down but not out, >> i'm in recovery i've been in recovery for 23 years... >> last shot at a better life... >> this is the one... this is the one... >> we haven't got it yet... >> it's all or nothing... >> i've told walgreen's i quit... >> hard earned pride... hard earned respect... hard earned future... a real look at the american dream hard earned only on al jazeera america

>> part of our month long look at working in america. "hard earned". a month after attacking this university in ken yeah, al show bob gunmen return to the area and reportedly kill 25 policemen. ♪ ♪ hello, i am richelle carey you are watching al jazerra live from doha. also at program the taliban strikes in southern afghanistan killing five people in kabul and another 13 policemen and seven soldiers in tell man we'll have the latest on the mass graves found in malaysia, our reporter is on the scene deep in the