On rare occasions, I dream about being a politician or high-level international bureaucrat. Not because I want to be a moocher (please put me out of my misery if that ever happens), but because I periodically read about some sleazy interest group making petulant demands for handouts and I think about how much fun it would be to tell them to go jump in a lake.
In some cases, the sleazy interest group is an entire nation. Greece recently took a bailout from both the European Union (i.e., European taxpayers) and the International Monetary Fund (i.e., all taxpayers). In exchange for getting a handout, Greek politicians agreed to implement a bunch of deficit-reduction policies.
But like many welfare recipients, the country of Greece has an entitlement mentality and is now whining and complaining about having to live up to its side of the bargain.
All I can think about is how rewarding and satisfying it would be to say, “okay, a__h___s, have it your way, we’re revoking your bailout. Have fun becoming Argentina on your way to becoming Zimbabwe, you bloodsucking leeches.”
Actually, if I had that power, Greece never would have received a bailout in the first place, but I think you know what I mean.
Here are some excerpts from the Reuters report about Greece’s chutzpah.
Greece accused the EU and IMF of interfering in its domestic affairs on Saturday after the international lenders said Athens must speed up reforms and sell more public assets. On Friday, EU and IMF inspectors visiting Greece to monitor the implementation of a bailout plan that saved Greece from bankruptcy, approved more aid for the country but adopted a more critical tone than on previous visits. In rare harsh words, the Greek government said the inspectors’ approach was unacceptable, after coming under fire from local media for not reacting to criticism of the pace of reforms and the call for privatizations. …Earlier in the day, government spokesman George Petalotis said: “We asked nobody to interfere in domestic affairs … We only take orders from the Greek people.”
[…] don’t like the international bureaucrats at the IMF, and I don’t like the corrupt politicians of Greece, so for whom do I cheer if there’s a fight between those two […]
[…] I actually hope these anti-conditionality parties prevail. Because if they get power and say that they won’t do anything to fix Greece’s budget, maybe the fiscal pyromaniacs at the International Monetary Fund and elsewhere will finally stop the bailouts. […]
The more money those productive of Europeans (those left that is) put into Greece, the more Greeks will be able to blackmail their northern partners under the threat that lest Europeans keep giving to the Greeks, they risk losing all they have invested since the beginning. Either a permanent mechanism for wealth transfer from the more productive European core to the less productive European periphery is established, or United Europe starts to break apart (which may be a good thing in the end).
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But as I have said a few times about the Greek – European relationship, the crux of the matter is that:
Within the context of a now integrated pan-European Welfare State it will become morally indefensible to obligate those productive of Germans to subsidize Germans who have chosen mediocrity, but deny same subsidy to Greeks that choose same mediocrity. A Dutch person choosing mediocrity has a right to being supported by those more productive, but a Greek choosing same mediocrity has no such right? How is the Europe of “liberté, égalité, fraternité” going to morally justify that?
So Europeans will keep paying. It will take a long time for small Greece to consume enough German productivity to severely affect German competitiveness already pressured by international competition; lest Spain and some of the larger European economies now at the failure margin also reach the point of collapse.
Europe’s survival margin under international competition is now very thin indeed, ever since 3 billion people in the developing world were given enough economic freedom to start climbing out of the personal incentive abyss they had been trapped in for decades, if not centuries. So Greece may, after all, be the straw that breaks the European Welfare State’s back. But Greece, in itself, like the proverbial straw, will be only a small part of the overall problem. The fundamental European problem is that when the basics in life, like Education, Healthcare and some Retirement are unconditionally guaranteed, few people preserve enough incentives to continue to strive to rise above mediocrity – especially when any exceptional work is immediately harvested to provide the basics to those who chose mediocrity.
So Europe is destined to see the average prosperity of its citizens converge to the worldwide average. The US is not that far behind and while Europe is hopeless, the US is also perhaps past the point of no return. The Social Security, Medicare, ObamaCare trio alone, are on auto-pilot to set the US on the same path as Europe. 2008 WAS the endgame of American prosperity. Now only exceptional events will save Americans from being sucked into worldwide mediocrity. So don’t count on miracles. Secure a life boat and party on the US-Titanic while she floats (i.e. when the public starts paying your Healthcare unconditionally starting in 2014, just be content and retire or do as little work as needed to keep your income below 60-80k and keep the subsidy). Don’t try to be a sucker hero. I’ve seen this movie. Trust me. I know how it ends.
But heck! Prove me wrong Americans! Escape the pull of the mandatory collectivist vortex you’ve drawn yourselves into since 9/11 (*) and I will believe that there is truly something different in the American DNA. I bet though 5 to 1 that you’re going down folks! (actually not going down exactly, simply absorbed into the worldwide average – not an envious place to be compared to where you are now).
(*) So whoever said that terrorism does not work was simply wishfully thinking. It works in spades seems like! It essentially caused the once freest of people in the world to spiral down into mandatory collectivism and suicide themselves.
“We only take orders from the Greek people. … and your job is to give us your money.”
SUPERB!
“okay, a__h___s, have it your way, we’re revoking your bailout. ” Pure gold!