Greece Looming

One of the many left-wing countries of Europe, Greece faces massive debt, a burgeoning deficit, and potential collapse. The country has demanded of its productive sector more and more sacrifice while its non-productive sector refuses to stop demanding more and more benefit. There has been months of strikes which have slowed down an already recessive economy leading to more economic hardship all in the name of that famous left-wing abstraction "Fairness". The country teeters while the unions fiddle.

Greece is a case study of how a centrally-planned mixed-economy is not the Utopia that so many in the US seek. When the state guarantees your pension, you are beholden to the budgeting of fools and scholars alike. A centrally planned economy, by definition, does not care for the local community. The theoretical always outweighs the practical until reality sets in and ruin is upon everybody. The sad reality is, people will do as little as they can to get as much as they can.

A government benefit does not come from the government, it comes from your neighbor. When your neighbor stops being productive fewer people must become more productive in order to support government benefits. No one is willing to give up their government benefit, but those same people will force the producers to give up their time with family, their time in the garden, their pay, and their savings. There is never a 'thank you' only the demand for more.