The moochers won in Greece (Guest Post)

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Alexis Tsipras

Syriza, the neo-communist party led by Alexis Tsipras, has won the elections in Greece. The party is a collection of Marxists, Socialists, Maoists, Trotskyites and Greenies. In other words, Syriza is the party of the moochers. They oppose the austerity measures that the troika of the EU, European Central Bank and the IMF imposed on them in exchange for loans.

The Greeks, who cheated their way into the EU, are fed up with the austerity measures. They remind me of someone who maxed out his credit card and had to depend on his relatives to save him from bankruptcy.

As a condition for fresh loans from the troika, Greece had agreed to drastic cuts in government spending. This caused 5 years of recession and a drop in their standard of living. Greeks cannot afford the cushy welfare state they had grown accustomed to. Leftist governments had given away free health care, generous pensions and early retirement to win elections. That was how they went broke. See my earlier article on Greece and what it means for the US.

Now, the Greeks had thrown a temper tantrum against the troika and voted for an ultra leftist party. Syriza promised them a roll back of the spending cuts and to persuade the troika to continue lending them more money! What cheek.

That was the snake oil Syriza sold the Greeks and they bought it. Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has a lot of clout in the EU because they contribute the most money. The Germans are fed up with the Greeks. This is not surprising. According to marketwatch, the German retirement age was 65 as of 2010, while the retirement age in Greece was 57 years.

According to the top 10 list, Greece has the second lowest retirement age in the world. If they work till 57, they are entitled to a generous pension from the government. The outgoing Greek government had promised to raise the retirement age to 63 this year to save money. That’s still lower than the retirement age of the Germans who are the biggest lender to the Greeks. So the Greeks expect the Germans (who have to work till 65) to lend them more money so that they can retire at 63 (assuming Syriza keeps the previous government’s promise).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will tell the mooching Greeks to …. off (choose your expletive). That is my prediction. The Greeks have an outrageous sense of entitlement. Years of leftist government have taught them the idea that the world or somebody owes them a living and a good living at that. They think they are entitled to mooch on other people’s money.

The Greeks will have to face reality. The first reality is the Socialism does not work. Obama, please take note. As Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

I think the EU and especially the Germans are running out of patience. Syriza ran on the election campaign promise to renegotiate the terms of the loans that the previous government led by Antonis Samaras had signed. The troika had reluctantly agreed to lend them more money in exchange for spending cuts because a Greek default on its debt would bring down European banks. The loans were more for the purpose of saving the banking system from collapse rather than to save Greece. But after five years, the European banking system can withstand the shock of a Greek default.

Therefore, Alexis Tsipras does not have the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)  to force the troika to lend them more money. The Greeks who voted for him will have to face the hard reality that they have finally run out of other people’s money.

Tsipras has to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. He has to either renege on his campaign promises to abandon austerity, or leave the EU and default on Greek debt. If he chooses the latter, Greece will go back to the Drachma instead of using the Euro. Then they can, like the US, print as much currency as he wants to pay for the lavish welfare state that the Greeks desire.

But this will cause a decline in the Drachma and the inflation will be terrible. The Greeks can retire as early as they want, but they will find that the Drachmas their government pays them can’t buy much. The Greeks will become poorer. So austerity or not, they will end up poorer.

It is what they deserve. So don’t cry for them. The economic suffering they will get will make them yearn for the good old days of austerity.

The moral of the story is that if you want a good life, you have to work for it. In the end, your nation has to  sell goods and services to someone to earn a living. Growing rich requires years of hard work, first in school and later in your job or business. The welfare state that the Greeks built up cannot give them a better life. Obama, take note.

Greece is the birthplace of Democracy. According to Karl Marx, “Democracy is the Road to Socialism.”

That’s what happened in Greece. But Socialism brought ruin to Greece because it has finally ran out of other people’s money. The moochers may have won the elections, but in the end they won nothing but more suffering.

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There were plenty of voters on the dole, welfare, pensions, etc., to elect Alexis Tsipras.
BUT, Alexis Tsipras is not a fool like his low-info voters.
What was his REAL agenda?
To loot the country of as much as he and his personal cronies can before the truth dawns on his supporters?
Probably.
His two options, leave the EU and print increasingly weaker Greek drachmas OR stay in the EU and accept enforced austerity.
While he does either one, watch his bank account.
He will be enriching himself.

@Nanny:

>>He will be enriching himself.<<

In Euros…

This is simple arithmetic: Greece was never going to repay the loans. They joined the EU for access to cheap loans and they blatantly lied about their financial condition to do so. Moreover, the Eurocrats *knew* they were lying and said/did nothing… so why should Greece repay the loans?

The EU was always a horrid idea. They Europeans wanted to takeover the US scam of “World Reserve Currency” and set about exporting their inflation. Like most things European, it was a compromise and, because of that, will fail… but ever so graciously and exuding culture all the while! LOL

@JohnGalt: Welcome back! Always good to have another well informed voice here.

Germany is more socialistic then Greece they have
A huge social safety net

@John: Perhaps.
However, less comes the way of pensioners IF they have to be 65 to retire, as is the case in Germany.
In Greece you retire at full pension at age 57.
Listen.
You will hear that gigantic sucking sound, not from Germany, but from Greece.

Obama take note

Not only will Obama not take note, but not a single one of his Obamacare sycophants believing that the wealthy can be mined for all the goodies they desire without lifting a finger heed the repeated examples of failed socialism.

They had to do something. Greece is so poor now that the people can’t even afford antiperspirants.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102380840
You can never stop re-evaluating potential options.
This one (above) has Russia aligning with Greece and offering financial help just because Greece is being critical of the EU’s position via Russia!
Of course, Russia is suffering from a fast falling ruble and won’t be able to completely lift Greece out of the fire of its own making.
But Russia’s aid could give Greece’s new socialist/Marxist some breathing room.

The one lesson the Obamas and their closest allies in this administration have taken away from the Greeks is enriching themselves at the expense of others all while pretending to fight for the little guy…

@John:

Yeah and I bet you have a Greek car? What brand would that be?

@Greg:

They had to do something. Greece is so poor now that the people can�t even afford antiperspirants.

But what excuse do the French have?

We see our own future in the Greek election results. When 51% (or more) of voters relaize they can vote themselves “free” money -taken by the government from those who actually earn it – the countdown to economic collapse and subsequent totalitarianism begins. How long it takes to occur will vary based on the economic conditions when the countdown begins, but the final result will be the same.

The reason the Founders set up a representative republic was to avoid the inevitable economic collapse of democratic mobocracy.

We should all be paying attention to what happens with the Greek “negotiations.” Depending on how they go, Greece is a canary in the EU coal mine. Perceptions on this will impact world markets even though Greece’s economy is not significant on its own.

The Key, IMHO, is Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s newly minted Minister of Finance. Varoufakis is going to be the guy to watch. He is an economist with roots in Marxism, however, he is going to be the smartest guy in most rooms he’ll enter, including rooms full of economist. He is also quite creative, and smart enough to be pragmatic when the rubber meets the road and the hardest decisions will have to be made. He resents the central bankers, and despises the kleptocrats who have run Greece forever.

Three major challenges for him are what he can negotiate with Germany, what he can do with Greek entitlement, and how can he stimulate entrepreneurs. The EU cannot afford to have Greece leave. Greece is bankrupt and has been for a long time, but it seems no one in the EU is willing to admit it.

Varougakis will be the new Greek superman if he succeeds in pulling rabbits and wrenching his country from the abyss. Other countries like Spain, Portugal and Italy will also be watching his every move, every pronouncement and every decision.

I also don’t believe that Alexis Tsipras, the new Greek head of State, has a clue what he’s doing and won’t have much to do with saving Greece if it’s going to be saved.

Well… they’ve ran out of money!

The left always believes things will just work out without any pain or sacrifice. Greece is no different. They cannot give up their government freebie dreamland and just KNOW someone will bail them out… “too big to fail”.

Someone always bails out and cleans up the mess left by left wing incompetence.

#13:

“We see our own future in the Greek election results. When 51% (or more) of voters realize they can vote themselves “free” money -taken by the government from those who actually earn it – the countdown to economic collapse and subsequent totalitarianism begins. How long it takes to occur will vary based on the economic conditions when the countdown begins, but the final result will be the same.”

This much is absolutely true. But how does this follow?:

“The reason the Founders set up a representative republic was to avoid the inevitable economic collapse of democratic mobocracy.”

In our “representative republic,” who gets “represented?” Who gets to vote?
Just the tax-payers? If so, what was all of that crap about all men being created equal? Isn’t the Constitution chock-a-block full of stuff giving every adult, law-abiding citizen the SAME rights? Just how much of the Constitution do you want to trash, anyway? Because you cannot get to the economic stability of your “workerocracy” without plowing under what the founding fathers planted.

Just asking…