Wednesday, June 6, 2012

And to think this place was one of the cradles of Western civilization

Modern Greece is quite a case.  Most people's lives are propped up with government largesse; they riot when there is talk of scaling that back.  Then those in Brussels and Berlin bankrolling their lifestyle say, "Well, then, no more sugar." 

Turns out, Greeks' sense of disconnect is so severe, they go to considerable lengths to avoid paying taxes that would allow them to say that to at least some degree they are paying for their own babysitter state.  And because they are such deadbeats, their government is just plain running out of cash.

6 comments:

  1. Is it possible that some of these lazy asses are rioting because they don't trust the politicians, bankers and other businesspeople who, granted may be the sort to work their asses off to make their buck and hence karmically entitled to their largess, they don't quite believe them? Should they?

    Forgive me for doubting the simplistic blame here. I just have a hunch, not that I am any sort of economics heavyweight, but I started with wiki, no sin in that, is there, for more of an overview. They must be freedom haters there too because what at first glance appears to be due soley to lazy Greeks just might have multifarious causes, some even the fault of, oh, could it be, could it be, the bankers and other financial movers and shakers. It's probably just a cop out to consider their involvement. Everybody get up off their asses and get a goddam job!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_sovereign_debt_crisis

    1 Causes 1.1 Rising government debt levels
    1.2 Trade imbalances
    1.3 Structural Problem of Euro Zone System
    1.4 Monetary policy inflexibility
    1.5 Loss of confidence

    5 Controversies
    5.1 EU treaty violations
    5.2 Actors fueling the crisis
    5.2.1 Credit rating agencies
    5.2.2 Media
    5.2.3 Speculators

    5.3 Speculation about the breakup of the eurozone
    5.4 Odious debt
    5.5 National statistics
    5.6 Collateral for Finland

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  2. And what caused these trade imbalances? Answer: the Greeks weren't producing anything but a little tourism, some fish and some olive oil.

    Bankers don't enter a picture like this until somebody is low on cash and needs to procure a loan.

    Sorry, but it all started with a disregard for solvency and productivity.

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  3. Which worked until the crash. I do not trust the bankers either. Now its crunch time and they aren't sweating it for their gross negligence if not
    Outright fraud. The people are protesting that, that's all. You never have a whit of concern for the opposing views. They are the enemy and that's that. Take Iran and Norkor, well, yeayah they want nukes. Why should they trust their enemies that have them who of course don't want them to?

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  4. Whoa, what, now we're defending the right of North Korea and Iran to have nukes? What's next? Holding them up as exemplars of human rights?

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  5. United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China, North Korea, India & Pakistan are all known to have nuclear capability. Israel is the only country apparently allowed to keep theirs a secret. I am just saying that I can understand why Iran wants them and, as usual (and quite as expected) you twist it around to demonize here for suggesting I am a reasonable gentleperson who understands motivations of countries who fear for their safety, whether they are exemplars of human rights, proponents of our exceptional Western culture or not. Of course reasonable gentlepeople are as detested here as outright freedom haters, commies, Muslims (I understand your ilk does not ascribe to the existence of any safe and "kosher" Muslims, they're all radical to you folks. Between a rock and a hard place here, Obama and you pious, self-righteous unyieldingly bellicocious paranoiac creeps....

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  6. Xtra, xtra, read allaboutit:

    Fox News Poll: Obama more trusted on terrorism, Romney on economy


    By Dana Blanton

    Published June 07, 2012

    FoxNews.com


    Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/07/fox-news-poll-obama-more-trusted-on-terrorism-romney-on-economy/#ixzz1x9FkNIlO

    ReplyDelete