The Grecian Paradigm

It’s not fair to use Greece as an example of what a nation should not be doing, other nations have committed many of the same mistakes, but Greece is currently under the microscope. There have been economists cautioning our government that we may be flirting with actions that could very well put us in the same position as Greece. Most economist feel that we are not anywhere close to reaching this point, but one could not be faulted for thinking that this view may be on the optimistic side. These economists may be overlooking the speed that our Nation seems to be adopting many of the same programs that have hastened the economic collapse of Greece. There seems to be little concern for many of the costly programs that we are adopting or for the additional cost related to the massive growth of government employees needed to oversee these programs.

Many of our states are in a financial crisis that are comparable to the Grecian plight, and it’s being suggested that the Federal government will bail these states out; however, it is doubtful that the administration will require these states to take serious actions designed to put them back on a sound fiscal footing. Requiring these states to take corrective action would create a backlash on the party requesting corrective changes, regardless of the validity behind the request. The real problem that the requesting party is going to have is that it will also be expected to make changes within the Federal government to show that it’s serious about correcting the Nation’s fiscal dilemma.

Some people have suggested that what is happening in Greece could not happen here, and that if it did, the population would not respond with destructive behavior. One cannot say with any certainty that this would be the case; there is a strong possibility that our population would react in the very same way as the Greeks. Consider the greed that is expressed by many of our citizens, and their failure to recognize the expression of greed in taking from others to satisfy their wants. How many people have you heard say that they should be getting an increase in pay because we have moved into a new fiscal year? Many of these people are government employees that are making more than the people that are paying their salaries. Continuing with our current fiscal behavior is going to create many of the same conditions that Greece is faced with. Hopefully we will come to the realization that it is our representatives and our demands that are creating our fiscal dilemma.

Given the results of the recent election one would have to conclude that most of our citizens don’t understand the problems we are faced with. A turnout of twelve to thirteen percent for an election, given our fiscal problems, would indicate that there is a lack of understanding. The fact that an increase in our taxes was passed by about five percent of our voting population is very telling. It appears that a good percentage of our population gives very little thought to the selection of candidates; they are content to take the words of the politicians as gospel. It appears that there was very little critical analysis applied to the selection of candidates or the question of additional taxes. It is hard to sympathize with the plight of many of our countrymen when these citizens sit back and allow these abuses to continue. Have we become a nation of sheep, or has our greed expressed in entitlements distorted our thinking?