Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Greece The Welfare State's Death Spiral


For all you pie-in-the-sky Progressive Liberals, oh I’m sorry, you dropped the Liberal label to hide what you really are, look at the latest example (Greece) of how your big government, womb to the tomb policies don’t work in the real world.

The trouble with Liberals, for the most part, is that they are a bunch of academic thinkers that think of ways government can help people.

They’ve never held a real job in the real world.

As such, they have no clue how a private business works, and they really don’t care to learn because for them, government is the sole provider of everything.

President Obama has the same mindset and his policies, left unchecked, or forced to be corrected by the upcoming mid-term elections in November, will lead the United States towards a Grecian calamity.


From Real Clear Politics:

What we're seeing in Greece is the death spiral of the welfare state. This isn't Greece's problem alone, and that's why its crisis has rattled global stock markets and threatens economic recovery.

Virtually every advanced nation, including the United States, faces the same prospect. Aging populations have been promised huge health and retirement benefits, which countries haven't fully covered with taxes. The reckoning has arrived in Greece, but it awaits most wealthy societies.

Americans dislike the term "welfare state" and substitute the bland word "entitlements." The vocabulary doesn't alter the reality. Countries cannot overspend and overborrow forever.

By delaying hard decisions about spending and taxes, governments maneuver themselves into a cul de sac. To be sure, Greece's plight is usually described as a European crisis -- especially for the euro, the common money used by 16 countries -- and this is true.

But only up to a point.

Euro coins and notes were introduced in 2002. The currency clearly hasn't lived up to its promises. It was supposed to lubricate faster economic growth by eliminating the cost and confusion of constantly converting between national currencies. More important, it would promote political unity. With a common currency, people would feel "European." Their identities as Germans, Italians and Spaniards would gradually blend into a continental identity.

None of this has happened.

Economic growth in the "euro area" (the countries using the currency) averaged 2.1 percent from 1992 to 2001 and 1.7 percent from 2002 to 2008. Multiple currencies were never a big obstacle to growth; high taxes, pervasive regulations and generous subsidies were.

As for political unity, the euro is now dividing Europeans. The Greeks are rioting. The countries making $145 billion of loans to Greece -- particularly the Germans -- resent the costs of the rescue.
Full story

Via Real Clear Politics

Via Memeorandum

The Last Tradition

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