printCOMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU. The excerpt is from “Land of Moussaka, Moochers and Looters,” which you can read on WND.COM:
“The public sector and its syndicates will collapse a country before they accept “austerity measures” – the focus of disaffection among Greece’s gritty street fighters is the requirement that they begin to exercise frugality.
Against the better judgment of the people in member EU states, the Eurocrats have committed to rescuing the profligate Greeks. The International Monetary Fund (for which Americans are liable, too) will assist. In exchange, the slackers striking out on city streets and against their compatriots will have to watch their public-sector wages slashed, pensions cut, pay frozen. And, horrors, Greeks will have to live with ‘liberalized labor laws,’ in other words, allow some economic freedoms to the few workers who carry the welfariat. …
The defaulting Dionysians, on the other hand, are fueled with the righteousness of the wronged. From the janitor to the journalist, they blame their politicians who, in exchange for power, only gave the demos what they demanded at the time. …
The Grecian wilding is a minor event compared to the events that’ll unfold should China quit funding our federal behemoth’s bacchanalia, and the Moody’s credit-rating agency downgrades U.S. Treasuries to junk bond status, befitting a banana republic.” …
The complete column is “Land of Moussaka, Moochers and Looters,” now on WND.COM.
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Update (May Eighth): Pat Buchanan on the Greek welfariat:
“… consider what brought Greece to where she is – running a deficit of 14 percent of gross domestic product with a debt approaching 100 percent, with Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Great Britain not that far behind.
All of Europe adopted universal health care. All voted in a shorter workweek, a higher minimum wage, greater job security, earlier retirements and munificent pensions.
As the cradle-to-grave welfare states rose, an ever-increasing share of the labor force left the private sector for the security of the public sector.
Tax-consumers, the beneficiaries of the welfare states and the bureaucrats that ran them, grew in number, as taxpayers declined as a share of the labor force. Though Greece was far from the most productive nation in Europe, Athens led the parade. …
And America is not all that far behind.
While the federal deficit is not 14 percent of GDP, it was 10 percent in 2009 and may reach 11 percent in 2010. Trillion-dollar deficits are projected through the decade, bringing the public debt – held by citizens, companies, foreign governments and sovereign wealth funds – close to 100 percent of GD
And the unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and federal pensions rival those of Western Europe.
States like California and New York, larger than Greece, look a lot like Greece. Were it not for the scores of billions dished out to them by Obama’s stimulus, some of these states would have come close to the brink New York City went over in 1975.
Many of these states are today laying off teachers, letting felons out of prison and looking hard at the salaries and pensions of civil servants. While the temptation is great for Washington to bail them out again, the United States government itself has now begun to attract the concerned notice of holders of U.S.debt.” …
[SNIP]
Keynesians still manage to surprise me. Fox News’ Neil Cavuto helped disseminate ignorance and immorality when he entertained an “economist,” or just a shyster, who advanced anti-gravity claims: austerity measures were the wrong thing for Greece. National bankruptcy could never happen in the US, because we have a printing press with which to create prosperity. Just like that.
By that logic, why work? Why produce? Why not just print magic money at that paper Pantheon, and hand it out to Americans who can then sit idle on the beaches?
Brilliant article. We are in deep trouble as a nation. I suspect God is going to judge us with a financial collapse if we continue on our present
course of corruption and biblical neglect.
California is the bellwether state when it comes to the parasitic public service sector employees.
As California goes, so goes the rest of the country.
I have always wondered whether these present day Greeks are related, other than language and location, to the Ancient Greeks. I imagine there has been enough miscegenation over the last two thousand years to make the current Greeks unrecognizable to the Ancients.
As for the current trouble, I hope it continues and brings down the EU.
It may be offensive to many, but I watch the Greek issue with amusement, precisely because of all the FACTS Ms. Mercer outlines in her column. As a self-employed manual laborer a working machinist and mechanic, I know I will still be working, when the unions, particularly the one that is carried by government workers, choose to shut down production, and make a protest similar to that taking place in Greece. I hope they choose to do it soon, as the small coterie of workers who actually produce all the output in the Nation have been under the grinder the unions and the government, together make, and naturally destroy all who are actively productive, because such people are The Truth, which demonstrates themselves to be nothing but a lie, and truthfully nothing but “the pigs” who demand everything from everyone else, and do nothing themselves, except riot when their free ride is cut short. I almost hope the left does not “get” the lesson that is obvious to all, that can easily be learned by merely watching and waiting, as the new “Greek Tragedy” makes its way to its natural end. It’s a real shame only working people ever read Ayn Rand, and thus learn something valuable she had to teach. Long live John Galt!!!
John McClain
GySgt, USMC, ret.
Vanceboro, NC
[I away look forward to your letters.]
Things are so ludicrous here in FantasyLand that the Oink Sector cannot even stop the Auto-Oink of our Republicrat Demoplian Congress. I listened to Defense Secretary Gates decrying the expensive costs of Aircraft Carriers, Submarines, etc. at a Navy Symposium and he mentioned that they tried to CUT some C-17 aircraft and extra F-35 engines only to have Congress insist on spending more borrowed money. Now, the Pentagon is trying to restrain its own pay raises:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp…/AR2010050703054.html?…
“After years of generous pay raises, Pentagon warns of fiscal calamity” – but Congress insists on increasing pay and benefits more.
Greece is just suburban dinner theater – Titanic America is the main stage and we are still aiming for that looming iceberg.
The violence is surprising. I have visited Athens several times, and never saw anything that would lead me to believe that the Greeks are a violent people. Yes, they argue in raised voices, and protest…but killing their fellow citizens, no.
EU “integration” has allowed Greeks to benefit by transferring wealth from other countries. Perhaps now that belts will tighten, some react in ways that were not characteristic of that group of people.
Also, in my experience, nothing in Athens runs “on time,” including the subway and buses; many businesses close for several hours in the hot afternoon, opening up much later and staying open until the wee hours; and the “work ethic” seen in countries like Germany is all but absent in Greece. That is part of the charm of the place, but no reason for citizens of other European countries to bail the Greeks out of their current situation.
Germans, it seems, are bearing the greater economic burden of this EU; perhaps they should disregard Merkel’s pleas for support for the “future of Europe.” Germans don’t need Europe; Europe needs Germany.
The Greeks, like we in the United States, have large bands of anarchistic ruffians indoctrinated with Marxist nonsense who jump at any opportunity to cause violence and chaos in the name of “justice.” Of course they are overwhelmingly the children of the upper and upper middle classes.
While I feel for the Greeks, they need to balance their budget. If you want the low interest rates that come with the Gross-Deutsmark-err I mean the Euro, you will have to meet the requirements that come with its adoption. If you want the ability to inflate away your debts, opt out of the Euro like the Danes, the Swedes and the Brits.
Are the Germans the only people left in the world that remember the consequences of profligate money printing?
Correct me if I am wrong, isn’t anarchy the opposite of marxism? The unions, deadbeats and moochers aren’t anarchists, since they believe in “total” government, not absence of government. I am not sure what Bob Harrison means by “anarchistic ruffians”. Perhaps he means “chaotic ruffians” which is just a method to bring about total government, with the collapse of “democratic” government.
Neil Cavuto amazes me. I watched Stossel on Thursday evening, Cavuto follows him. The stock market had its correction, and Cavuto had a former Wall Street chairman on as his guest. Greece was going nuts at the same time so the former chairman gave the Wall Street bump a courtesy notice and spent the rest of his time trying to point to Greece and saying ‘this is where we’re going to be if we don’t rein in spending’ The look on Cavuto’s face told me that he couldn’t stand to hear it and wanted to throw the man off. He may have done it, after I turned it off. I can’t see how Fox, which at one time had integrity [when?!], can continue to keep people like him on. I followed Ilana’s link to Cavuto’s home site. He had a video of one of his pets on a clip, talking about how we just had a small bump in the road but by Monday, mommy says it will be alrighty. Here in Oklahoma we have the saying- Dumber than a stump’ I’m finding it more true every day.
[I don’t find Cavuto dumb; I find him a typical FoxNews man: a statist Republican.]
Greece has historically had huge problems with real communism.
And more so after WW2 :the Balkan problem (albania!!banana republic of EU)spilled over into greece and the war only officially ended in fifties on that side(macedonia etc all in soviet influence territory…) So real killing fields there not just rich left wing libs like usa or paris..
These very crazy people bully greece ! I am surprised they got into EU without better guarantees as germany and austria etc know these madmen very well.its a lovely place for a holiday but don’t fly the national airline and do bribe officials just like in africa
Peculiar.Germans and france will have to do something once the media is not so on top of story.cannot drag all eu down and span is very similar
Dark days ahead:honeymoon is over for the middle class
Mr. Smith,
Most Greeks (Athenians) I met were well aware that the Albanians flooding over their northern border are a problem. They range in type from very light-skinned Caucasians to very dark “gypsies” whose little kids will dance in the streets while their older siblings endeavor to pick your pocket or steal your purse (I am not kidding and frankly I’d never before seen girls likely under the age of 10 dancing in such suggestive and inappropriate ways.) The Greeks don’t like these people and want them out; however, in the “integrated” Europe, I’m not sure how easy that is to accomplish. Regardless, the gravy train for all who live inside Greece’s borders is now coming to a halt.