What We Could Learn From Greece (But We Won't)

Greece represents the ultimate end for the progressive liberal ideal.

40% of the workforce in Greece is employed by the government. 40%!!! The remaining 60% are comprised more or less equally by three groups:
1. Union members
2. Family businesses
3. Immigrants

Immigrants do the work other Greeks are apparently not willing to do. Sound familiar? They also pay almost no taxes, but qualify for available services, so they are a net drag on the state budget. The same is true for the family businesses, which are ripe with cronyism, and since the families penetrate deep into the weave of government, tax evasion is rampant. Finally, unions always push for more pay and benefits while also striving for less productivity from workers.

The massive public sector has seen the average pay for its workers double in the last 15 years, and of course they're all unionized, too, so good luck reversing that trend. So what has been the Greek solution? Tax the private sector more, which won't work because of cronyism, and "freeze" pay increases for public sector workers. That can't help either since they can't afford to pay what people are already making.

You would think that given the incredibly dire situation Greece is in that its people would be willing to make sacrifices in order to get things under control, but in fact the opposite is true. Public support for the minimal measures being proposed is almost zero, and the unions are staging violent protests across the country.

The obvious problem with the reform is that Greeks are so brainwashed by the big government/entitlement mentality that they cannot see the forest through the trees.

Given all these factors, the Greek economy truly has no chance. And yet, this is exactly what Bama and Democrats are striving for here in America. Germany, one of the few stable EU economies, stands to lose the most in bailing out Greece, and has actually suggested Greece sell several of its islands as collateral on the bailout package. Greece, instead of actually owning up to its failures, has instead raised the spectre of the Nazis, saying perhaps Germany needs to finally pay reparations for the costs of WWII.

Its scary to think that this is exactly the road liberals in this country want desperately to take us down. Maybe we can sell Alaska back to the Russians some day and get a bailout in return.