America’s Future In Greece?
One thing the Founding Fathers realized is that a democracy can destroy itself through the unlimited expansion of government. That’s part of the reason why we have a 10th Amendment:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
This amendment has been ignored and deliberately misread for so long that it has very little real meaning anymore. Were that not the case, we’d be much freer, the economy would probably be much larger, and we likely wouldn’t have any significant debt as a nation.
The reason it doesn’t work that way with an unfettered government is that everyone is incentivized to get their own little piece of the pie via the government at the expense of everyone.
Just look at what’s happening in Greece right now. Greece’s spending has grown so out of control that there are genuine fears that they may default on their debt; yet what’s the reaction to the government’s belt tightening to attempt to prevent that utter disaster?
Greek demonstrators took over the Finance Ministry building in central Athens, blocking streets in the city center, and Portuguese schools and hospitals were shut as unions stepped up protests against government deficit cuts.
In Athens, about 200 members of the PAME union group, aligned with the Communist Party of Greece, occupied the six- story ministry building today while protesters took over the nearby General Accounting Office, according to a police spokeswoman. Another group blocked a central road in downtown Athens, snarling traffic.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou yesterday unveiled 4.8 billion euros ($6.6 billion) of additional deficit cuts as he tries to convince European Union allies and investors he can tame the region’s biggest budget gap. EU officials praised the moves and Greek bonds gained on the measures, which include a 30 percent cut to three bonus-salary payments to civil servants.
“The measures are grossly unfair,” Dimitris Bratis, the president of the Greek teaching federation, which will strike for 24 hours tomorrow, told NET TV today. “We’re being asked to pay for the crisis. Greek taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill again.”
The main union for public workers, ADEDY, called a three- hour work stoppage for tomorrow and a protest rally in the city center that the country’s private-sector union group, representing 2 million Greek workers, will also join, according to spokesman Stathis Anestis. Most unions representing public- transport services also called a 24-hour strike tomorrow, affecting trams, rail and bus services in the Greek capital as well as the Athens subway.
Is this where we’re headed in the United States? Unless we change course, this is EXACTLY where we’re headed as a country.