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Welfare programs like unemployment benefits and housing subsidies are already significantly smaller in Greece than in the rest of Europe; Greeks rely instead on government jobs and their families for support. It’s true that Greece’s public sector is expensive, rife with cronyism and in need of reform. But fixing it won’t fix Greece’s problems.

The public sector does need restructuring, but the resulting unemployment will only strengthen the dominance of the family. A better solution would be to create a real public safety net that would help free young Greeks from the supportive yet suffocating grip of their families.

This won’t resolve Greece’s financial crisis immediately, of course — nothing can do that — but there’s a generation of young workers languishing in their parents’ living rooms and storerooms who, if freed, could help to turn the Greek economy around.

Young people are similarly constrained. The lucky ones land government jobs through family connections or work in a family business, “helping out” with no pay while formally unemployed. The unlucky ones toil for meager wages at someone else’s family business, where they have almost no chance of advancing into management. Many live with their parents up to the age of 35 because they can’t afford to live on their own. Unsurprisingly, fertility rates are very low. Young people also depend on their families to supplement their wages and pay the “tips” necessary to get decent health care.

The more pressing issue is that the country’s private sector is comprised mostly of family-owned and family-staffed businesses that hinder competition and innovation and depress wages. In fact, austerity measures will only reinforce the family’s stranglehold on both the state and the market.

Women often work for their husbands without salary, and divorce laws don’t effectively ensure the divorcing spouse’s stake in the family business or remuneration for the work she put into it — meaning it’s very difficult to leave a marriage.

But this is Athens, and the statistics are grim reminders of a middle-class society in rapid decline. Many fear that elections, including voting scheduled for Sunday, offer no clear route out of a deepening political and economic crisis. From its wealthy northern suburbs to the concrete blocks of downtown, there is a sense of an endgame in Athens.

So, have a nice weekend.