EQUALITY...THE WAY TO DEATH?
PROVERBS 14:12: There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Somewhere the greatness that was Greece is spinning in its grave. The birthplace of democracy and the proprietor of the largest single empire in history has become a den of childish parasites desperate to throw tantrums in order to get what they feel is their entitlement. And what might that entitlement be you ask? Why your money of course. Only a greedy capitalist pig of the highest order would think they were entitled to keep what was theirs. Socialism throughout Europe is dying an embarrassing death but as these parasites burn and loot their own cities let us rejoice in their having received their just rewards.
The recently announced Greek rescue package is dramatic, unprecedented in international politics and absolutely doomed to fail. This new program calls for a total of 11% of GDP in terms of "fiscal adjustments." Which is an elitist way of saying that the Greeks are going to have to cut their government spending. The politics of their situation have left them with almost no options. Most Greek debt is held abroad, therefore roughly 80% of the budget savings the Greek government makes will go straight to Germany, France and other foreign debt holders.
There was some talk of simply letting Greece default on its debts and face the consequences that they have earned for spending more money than they have. But in the dramatic showdown within the European union it was not Greece who blinked. The European leadership panicked with the realization that the European Union and its currency, the Euro, was itself at risk of a meltdown. If the European Union is unwilling to come to the aid of a member state like Greece, then bond investors will also run from Portugal and Spain. Both of which are themselves in desperate risk of going into default. Higher yields on government debt would have caused concerns about potential bank runs in these countries, and then spread to more nations in Europe...and beyond.
The Europeans therefore decided to throw everything they and the IMF have into a bailout for Greece. The program has little to no chance of actually preventing the inevitable Greek bankruptcy, but it may avert some of the collateral damage to the rest of Europe. The European Union itself could not likely survive if this spreads beyond Greece.
The backing for a bail-out comes despite worries that it will lead to the collapse of all fiscal discipline across region. It also raises the expected questions of fairness. Ireland, for example, has tackled its own crisis by slashing wages and going far beyond any measure so far offered by Greece, yet Dublin has not received help.
The Greeks for their part have responded with a considerable lack of gratitude.
Groups of masked youths hurled petrol bombs, stones and sticks at riot police as nearly 50,000 striking workers and public servants marched to parliament, where a bill dictating pay cuts and tax hikes was due for debate.
Eyewitnesses said marchers chanted "Thieves!" and hurled water bottles at riot police, who had formed a cordon around the parliament building in central Athens, reflecting increasing anger among ordinary people at politicians. -Reuters
Well what do you expect? Public sector workers have succeeded in rewarding themselves with extremely generous compensation and benefits packages at the expense of the taxpayers...you didn't think they were going to give it up without blaming those same taxpayers for being greedy for wanting to keep their money, did you? Government workers in Greece have even learned a trick that Einstein would be envious of: They can manipulate time. Every year, they receive 14 monthly paychecks! Isn't that an interesting application of the theory of relativity?
Even better, they are getting these 14 months of pay for only working about seven months! You see, for many of them, the workday ends at 2:30 pm. Suddenly it is not hard to see why socialism is so popular in these European countries. The average retirement age in Greece is 61 years of age...among the lowest in the world. When these workers retire they, of course, get 14 monthly pension payments a year.
Those of us who do not live in Utopia find it difficult to understand how the Greek government came to identify at least 580 job categories as hazardous enough to merit early retirement. In Greece early retirement is at age 50 for women and 55 for men. These categories include some obviously dangerous jobs like coal mining and bomb disposal. However it also covers such life threatening occupations as radio and television announcers who are thought to be at risk from the bacteria on their microphones and musicians playing wind instruments who must contend with gastric reflux as they puff and blow...I'm not kidding. In Greece everyone is "special" except, of course, the greedy taxpaying capitalists who have to pay for these hazardous entitlements.
As a consequence of decades of bargains struck between strong unions and weak socialist governments, Greece has promised early retirement to about 700,000 employees, or 40 percent of its work force. It is this system of early retirement that has greatly exacerbated the out-of-control state spending that has led to Europe’s current debt crisis.
The problem with Greek pensions far outweighs the troubles previously caused by "cooking" its accounts in the early 1990s to get its official deficit figures to appear low enough to qualify to join the European Union. A recent report by the European Commission found that Greek spending on pensions and health care for its aging population, if left unchecked, would soar from just over 20% of GDP today to about 37% of GDP by 2060, the highest level in Europe. It's no small wonder then that they are being asked to privatize their health care even as the United States is in a hurry to catch up with Greece by socializing ours.
Economic reality is not a concern in the socialist realm where truths are relative and not absolute. However, like the buffalo before them, the unicorns that once roamed the mighty socialist plains are dwindling. Sooner or later you do run out of other people's money.
For his part, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is blaming everyone except the corrupt socialist policies that created this situation. And he has found a new herd of unicorns that he believes can rescue Greece: the mythical "green economy."
“The focus on green economy is no longer just a case of sensitivity towards the environment, but an issue of creating a sustainable economy also. Due to the experience of the ongoing economic crisis, we realized that a closer international cooperation is needed to develop forward-thinking energy policies, as well as face the speculators who now attack Southern European countries.” - George Papandreou
That's right, its not our fault for squandering huge amounts of borrowed money we can't possibly ever pay back, its those other guys, the speculators. THEY are out to get us...and isn't the pursuit of that elusive "green economy" exactly what has placed Spain next in line for a default? Papandreou is merely the latest in a long line of politicians who is simply telling his people what they want to hear. A recent opinion poll shows that 55% of Greeks are unwilling to accept any more austerity measures in the future. Since the majority of the country is in denial and unable to face the reality that socialism doesn't work the fate of Greece seems assured. Who would loan Greece any money when there is no chance of getting repaid?
You can cry out that it is all the greedy capitalist's fault but the fact is that all of the capitalists left Greece a long time ago. Capitalists don't stay where they are not treated well and, as Greece is learning, they take their money with them. Class warfare is a Marxist notion that people in different social classes must necessarily be in conflict with each other, the rich seeking to keep the poor down and the poor seeking to take away what belongs to the rich. Until Greece gets over the "social justice" nonsense they are going to have to fend for themselves. The Europeans are simply looking to buy time to preserve their own interests.
I would like to tell you that what happened in Greece could never happen here in America. Unfortunately that would not be true for it already has...
"Thousands of teachers and other union workers descended on the state Capitol on Wednesday and chanted "raise my taxes" to try to pressure politicians to avoid major budget cuts. "If you try to leave town without doing your job, we're going to chase you," warned union leader Henry Bayer at a rally that drew an estimated 15,000 people — the biggest at the Capitol since the era of the Equal Rights Amendment more than a quarter-century ago." -April 21, 2010 Chicago Tribune
"More than 30,000 angry New Jersey residents marched to the state capitol Saturday, delivering a blistering message to the governor in an effort to protect their turf and their paychecks. At times resembling both a rock concert and a pep rally, more than 30,000 union employees and community activists gathered for a massive protest at the capitol to blast the governor." -May 23, 2010 WCBS TV
Like government workers in Greece, they do not care where the money comes from as long as they get their full paycheck, full pension, and full benefits. The combination of unions and the politicians who need their campaign donations is a deadly arrow aimed straight at the heart of every democracy that travels down the "social justice" highway to death.
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." -Aristotle
The proponents of "social justice" consistently want to deprive corporations and the successful of their freedom in the name of the "collective good" even as their policies directly harm the very people they propose to represent. They strangle their economies with regulations and regulators who then arbitrarily, or through bribery, determine who and what will be regulated. Laws and regulations, in and of themselves, accomplish nothing without enforcement. In the world of "social justice" every election changes the economic climate as each newly elected government has its own benefactors to pacify through either the strict enforcing of regulations on their competitors or failing to enforce them on their benefactors.
The apparently outdated concept of "equal justice" under the law does not recognize the need for those who know better to right the injustices and redistribute wealth so that failures, fools and fiends are rewarded the same as the frugal, the the successful and the honorable. To create the mythical "equality" that "social justice" advocates, people must be seen as unequal under the law, thereby providing those with the favor of the government with special classifications and extra rights under the law. "Social justice"= corruption 100% of the time.
"When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income." -Plato
Socialist democracies constantly need more money to finance their redistributionist schemes and they inevitably accomplish this through higher and higher rates of taxation. In Greece this has led to tax evasion on a massive scale as people simply do all their transactions in cash and do not report any of them to the government. This is a reasonable and expected response to excessive taxation and it forces the government to view its subjects as criminals. The unfortunate truth of "social justice" is that it makes criminals out of everyone. Where is the justice in that?
The socialist democracies that came into existence preaching the dogma of "social justice" are now being consumed by the parasites they created in order to attain their power. This may not qualify as "social justice" but it certainly does look to possess a fine quality of "divine justice." In other words, shed no tears for Greece and the other nations who will follow her into default. All is as it should be. However let us not rejoice too much...President Obama would have the United States follow the same path and achieve the same fate. In fact, he is doing everything he can to get us there in a hurry almost as though he feels envious of Greece and the other declining and defaulting socialist states. Perhaps he is finally aware there is only one path to true equality...all are equal in death.
PROVERBS 14:12: There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
The "social justice" crowd is exactly that which it outwardly claims to oppose as they are not, and never have been, the "Robin Hood" who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. No, they are the ones oppressing their people through ridiculously higher taxes while justifying their right to do so in the name of "social justice." Alas, Prince John and his sycophantic sheriff have found their way to Greece.
PROVERBS 14:12: There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Somewhere the greatness that was Greece is spinning in its grave. The birthplace of democracy and the proprietor of the largest single empire in history has become a den of childish parasites desperate to throw tantrums in order to get what they feel is their entitlement. And what might that entitlement be you ask? Why your money of course. Only a greedy capitalist pig of the highest order would think they were entitled to keep what was theirs. Socialism throughout Europe is dying an embarrassing death but as these parasites burn and loot their own cities let us rejoice in their having received their just rewards.
The recently announced Greek rescue package is dramatic, unprecedented in international politics and absolutely doomed to fail. This new program calls for a total of 11% of GDP in terms of "fiscal adjustments." Which is an elitist way of saying that the Greeks are going to have to cut their government spending. The politics of their situation have left them with almost no options. Most Greek debt is held abroad, therefore roughly 80% of the budget savings the Greek government makes will go straight to Germany, France and other foreign debt holders.
There was some talk of simply letting Greece default on its debts and face the consequences that they have earned for spending more money than they have. But in the dramatic showdown within the European union it was not Greece who blinked. The European leadership panicked with the realization that the European Union and its currency, the Euro, was itself at risk of a meltdown. If the European Union is unwilling to come to the aid of a member state like Greece, then bond investors will also run from Portugal and Spain. Both of which are themselves in desperate risk of going into default. Higher yields on government debt would have caused concerns about potential bank runs in these countries, and then spread to more nations in Europe...and beyond.
The Europeans therefore decided to throw everything they and the IMF have into a bailout for Greece. The program has little to no chance of actually preventing the inevitable Greek bankruptcy, but it may avert some of the collateral damage to the rest of Europe. The European Union itself could not likely survive if this spreads beyond Greece.
The backing for a bail-out comes despite worries that it will lead to the collapse of all fiscal discipline across region. It also raises the expected questions of fairness. Ireland, for example, has tackled its own crisis by slashing wages and going far beyond any measure so far offered by Greece, yet Dublin has not received help.
The Greeks for their part have responded with a considerable lack of gratitude.
Groups of masked youths hurled petrol bombs, stones and sticks at riot police as nearly 50,000 striking workers and public servants marched to parliament, where a bill dictating pay cuts and tax hikes was due for debate.
Eyewitnesses said marchers chanted "Thieves!" and hurled water bottles at riot police, who had formed a cordon around the parliament building in central Athens, reflecting increasing anger among ordinary people at politicians. -Reuters
Well what do you expect? Public sector workers have succeeded in rewarding themselves with extremely generous compensation and benefits packages at the expense of the taxpayers...you didn't think they were going to give it up without blaming those same taxpayers for being greedy for wanting to keep their money, did you? Government workers in Greece have even learned a trick that Einstein would be envious of: They can manipulate time. Every year, they receive 14 monthly paychecks! Isn't that an interesting application of the theory of relativity?
Even better, they are getting these 14 months of pay for only working about seven months! You see, for many of them, the workday ends at 2:30 pm. Suddenly it is not hard to see why socialism is so popular in these European countries. The average retirement age in Greece is 61 years of age...among the lowest in the world. When these workers retire they, of course, get 14 monthly pension payments a year.
Those of us who do not live in Utopia find it difficult to understand how the Greek government came to identify at least 580 job categories as hazardous enough to merit early retirement. In Greece early retirement is at age 50 for women and 55 for men. These categories include some obviously dangerous jobs like coal mining and bomb disposal. However it also covers such life threatening occupations as radio and television announcers who are thought to be at risk from the bacteria on their microphones and musicians playing wind instruments who must contend with gastric reflux as they puff and blow...I'm not kidding. In Greece everyone is "special" except, of course, the greedy taxpaying capitalists who have to pay for these hazardous entitlements.
As a consequence of decades of bargains struck between strong unions and weak socialist governments, Greece has promised early retirement to about 700,000 employees, or 40 percent of its work force. It is this system of early retirement that has greatly exacerbated the out-of-control state spending that has led to Europe’s current debt crisis.
The problem with Greek pensions far outweighs the troubles previously caused by "cooking" its accounts in the early 1990s to get its official deficit figures to appear low enough to qualify to join the European Union. A recent report by the European Commission found that Greek spending on pensions and health care for its aging population, if left unchecked, would soar from just over 20% of GDP today to about 37% of GDP by 2060, the highest level in Europe. It's no small wonder then that they are being asked to privatize their health care even as the United States is in a hurry to catch up with Greece by socializing ours.
Economic reality is not a concern in the socialist realm where truths are relative and not absolute. However, like the buffalo before them, the unicorns that once roamed the mighty socialist plains are dwindling. Sooner or later you do run out of other people's money.
For his part, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is blaming everyone except the corrupt socialist policies that created this situation. And he has found a new herd of unicorns that he believes can rescue Greece: the mythical "green economy."
“The focus on green economy is no longer just a case of sensitivity towards the environment, but an issue of creating a sustainable economy also. Due to the experience of the ongoing economic crisis, we realized that a closer international cooperation is needed to develop forward-thinking energy policies, as well as face the speculators who now attack Southern European countries.” - George Papandreou
That's right, its not our fault for squandering huge amounts of borrowed money we can't possibly ever pay back, its those other guys, the speculators. THEY are out to get us...and isn't the pursuit of that elusive "green economy" exactly what has placed Spain next in line for a default? Papandreou is merely the latest in a long line of politicians who is simply telling his people what they want to hear. A recent opinion poll shows that 55% of Greeks are unwilling to accept any more austerity measures in the future. Since the majority of the country is in denial and unable to face the reality that socialism doesn't work the fate of Greece seems assured. Who would loan Greece any money when there is no chance of getting repaid?
You can cry out that it is all the greedy capitalist's fault but the fact is that all of the capitalists left Greece a long time ago. Capitalists don't stay where they are not treated well and, as Greece is learning, they take their money with them. Class warfare is a Marxist notion that people in different social classes must necessarily be in conflict with each other, the rich seeking to keep the poor down and the poor seeking to take away what belongs to the rich. Until Greece gets over the "social justice" nonsense they are going to have to fend for themselves. The Europeans are simply looking to buy time to preserve their own interests.
I would like to tell you that what happened in Greece could never happen here in America. Unfortunately that would not be true for it already has...
"Thousands of teachers and other union workers descended on the state Capitol on Wednesday and chanted "raise my taxes" to try to pressure politicians to avoid major budget cuts. "If you try to leave town without doing your job, we're going to chase you," warned union leader Henry Bayer at a rally that drew an estimated 15,000 people — the biggest at the Capitol since the era of the Equal Rights Amendment more than a quarter-century ago." -April 21, 2010 Chicago Tribune
"More than 30,000 angry New Jersey residents marched to the state capitol Saturday, delivering a blistering message to the governor in an effort to protect their turf and their paychecks. At times resembling both a rock concert and a pep rally, more than 30,000 union employees and community activists gathered for a massive protest at the capitol to blast the governor." -May 23, 2010 WCBS TV
Like government workers in Greece, they do not care where the money comes from as long as they get their full paycheck, full pension, and full benefits. The combination of unions and the politicians who need their campaign donations is a deadly arrow aimed straight at the heart of every democracy that travels down the "social justice" highway to death.
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." -Aristotle
The proponents of "social justice" consistently want to deprive corporations and the successful of their freedom in the name of the "collective good" even as their policies directly harm the very people they propose to represent. They strangle their economies with regulations and regulators who then arbitrarily, or through bribery, determine who and what will be regulated. Laws and regulations, in and of themselves, accomplish nothing without enforcement. In the world of "social justice" every election changes the economic climate as each newly elected government has its own benefactors to pacify through either the strict enforcing of regulations on their competitors or failing to enforce them on their benefactors.
The apparently outdated concept of "equal justice" under the law does not recognize the need for those who know better to right the injustices and redistribute wealth so that failures, fools and fiends are rewarded the same as the frugal, the the successful and the honorable. To create the mythical "equality" that "social justice" advocates, people must be seen as unequal under the law, thereby providing those with the favor of the government with special classifications and extra rights under the law. "Social justice"= corruption 100% of the time.
"When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income." -Plato
Socialist democracies constantly need more money to finance their redistributionist schemes and they inevitably accomplish this through higher and higher rates of taxation. In Greece this has led to tax evasion on a massive scale as people simply do all their transactions in cash and do not report any of them to the government. This is a reasonable and expected response to excessive taxation and it forces the government to view its subjects as criminals. The unfortunate truth of "social justice" is that it makes criminals out of everyone. Where is the justice in that?
The socialist democracies that came into existence preaching the dogma of "social justice" are now being consumed by the parasites they created in order to attain their power. This may not qualify as "social justice" but it certainly does look to possess a fine quality of "divine justice." In other words, shed no tears for Greece and the other nations who will follow her into default. All is as it should be. However let us not rejoice too much...President Obama would have the United States follow the same path and achieve the same fate. In fact, he is doing everything he can to get us there in a hurry almost as though he feels envious of Greece and the other declining and defaulting socialist states. Perhaps he is finally aware there is only one path to true equality...all are equal in death.
PROVERBS 14:12: There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
The "social justice" crowd is exactly that which it outwardly claims to oppose as they are not, and never have been, the "Robin Hood" who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. No, they are the ones oppressing their people through ridiculously higher taxes while justifying their right to do so in the name of "social justice." Alas, Prince John and his sycophantic sheriff have found their way to Greece.
BEWARE...THE "GREEN" ECONOMY
