Mr. Skouros, who voted for the socialist Pasok party that was ousted from power this year, said he was no longer sure for whom he would vote if elections were held yet again.

“The problems of Greece are so widespread,” he said, shielding his eyes from a blazing sun as he looked across the stretch of farm country that he now calls home. “It would take a Marshall Plan with outside inspectors coming into every government operation and looking over people’s shoulders to make sure that change really happens.”

The Greek economy, already in the fifth year of recession, has slumped even further in recent months as a series of earlier state salary and spending cuts, together with sharp tax increases, take their toll on an austerity-weary public.

Growth contracted 6.2 percent in the second quarter and is expected to decline nearly 7 percent this year, far worse than the 4.2 percent forecast just a few months ago by the so-called troika of international lenders: the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission. Unemployment rose to 23.6 percent last month.

With the Samaras government’s latest proposals to cut state salaries and pensions even more, Greeks — including doctors, firefighters and large swaths of the national police force — have taken to the streets. So far the demonstrations have been peaceful.

But some people are bracing for the possibility of civil unrest on Sept. 26, when a planned nationwide strike is expected to bring things in Greece grinding to a halt.

While Mr. Samaras has promised that this latest austerity package will be the last round of cuts on his watch, critics say the bigger issue is that too little is being done to rehabilitate the competitiveness of the Greek economy or attract foreign investment. The troika has been signaling as much by insisting that the government take bolder steps to slim the bloated state sector; clamp down on waste, inefficiency and corruption; and reduce the thickets of administrative hurdles that stifle entrepreneurship in Greece.