Oh, the Greeks and their history of drama. From atop the Stoa I watch the lines of people stream by towards the legislature buildings and the public square, the modern forum for public venting. The closer the people get to the building, the more violent, rude, and tragic they become.
This has been a banner year for Marxist and Islamofascist movements around the world. Mr. Obama seems to have been both the Herald and the Enabler to bring about these changes. I digress.
The Greeks have much to be proud of. They have a long...very long cultural history. Bronze Age Greece was destroyed by a bunch of Doric invaders from the North and in its place rose the most enlightened people to ever ask, "why". They acted as a Western pollinator throughout North Africa and the Middle East through the afternoon jaunts of Alexander the Great. They acted as a civilizing agent on the Romans when they took over the known Western World. Their presence and impact on modern civilization can never, ever, be minimized.
What a motley lot the Greeks have become today. Their ancestors would weep. As a culture, they pride themselves on their ability to doge taxes and to live within the 'black' economy, the unofficial economy. THEN, they complain and scream when their benefits are cut due to the lack of tax revenue. Does not sound very enlightened to me.
When the Eurozone was created, many countries in the South of Europe saw this as a way to escape a chronically weak currency. They were frequently devaluing their currency and occasionally defaulting on debt. Corruption was omnipresent, however, in all fairness, it is that way throughout Europe. They "made" the cut to join the Monetary Union and then went on a spending and borrowing binge, building what ever they wanted, where ever they wanted, as big as they wanted. Expanded benefits for all. Greece thought the Olympics would be a boom for the economy. They lost money. They chained and locked the buildings after the Olympics. They sit empty and idle. The square footage generating nothing but overhead for the Greek government. Unfortunately, this is repeated over and over throughout the country. Resort and hotel building lead to over building, shoddy building due to corruption, cost over runs due to corruption, and head aches for the people who trusted them.
They have grown used to spending other peoples' money, mostly German money, and now they have to live within their means. Mean old Germany does not like having to cut its own benefits while it pays for the Greeks to keep living on the German dole. No sir. It does not pay to make the Germans angry. You think the rest of Europe would have figured that out. But again, I digress.
What is saddening about this is that we have a proud people angrily protesting that they will not be allowed to live for free. That they need produce nothing for the society that they expect to keep them living comfortably.
You are in debt. Pay them off you deadbeats. You had better stay off my Dirtbag roll call. Getting into a financial bind happens to all of us from time to time. Intentionally living on the dole with no desire to be more than a parasite is degrading.
One must draw the conclusions that mixing Socialism and the Free Market do not mix. Even a little. Like a bribe that only grows, so too does entitlements. If you let them creep into your national budget, they will eventually wedge in deeper and grow. It must, since government spending is ultimately a political decision, and politicians ultimately wish to get re-elected. Therefore, entitlements will grow, in time, to become the bread and circuses to keep the masses docile. You can not do this forever. There will come a reckoning. The Soviet Union collapsed quickly because they did not even recognize the Free Market forces that were crushing them. China saw that coming to the Soviets by the end of the 1970's and decided to abandon Chairman Mao and forget about the 100 million people who died making China a Socialist/Communist nation. China is doing well, though for how much longer is not known. Western Europe was always more open to mixing their economies and it seemed to work well for a while, though what it lead to was a sclerotic economic model and routinely high unemployment. Immigration and multi-generational unemployment has now lead to the the meltdowns that are pulling the European Union apart.
The United States started slower but decided to drain the bottle in one gulp under Obama and now we are seeing what entitlements spending does to people. It destroyed the black nuclear family, it created multi-generational poor, the "projects", and unchecked immigration (to get the free goodies). Now we wrestle with the results.
Greece is the canary. Watch it closely along with Ireland, Portugal and Spain. What happens to them will happen to us as well, only on a much larger scale.
Oh, and Greece, grow up, shave, take a shower and get back to work. It is the only thing that will make your life better.
Live well.
--Zavost
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