Over the last several days there have been violent protest in Greece, including several deaths, over the spending cuts the government is proposing. From “The Wall Street Journal:”
The Greeks are giving the world a good taste of their modern politics. Periclean democracy, meet Athenian mob rule: Tens of thousands are rampaging through the capital and other large cities this week in protest against €30 billion in austerity measures needed to secure the €110 million bailout for the bankrupt country.
The nationwide strike—led by government-employee unions, which threaten further disruptions after parliament yesterday approved the rescue package—was a timely show for Greece’s prospective rescuers in Germany and at the International Monetary Fund. The medicine for Greece’s deficit and debt woes (at 13% and 124.9% of GDP, respectively.
I used to have a lot of affinity with the Democratic Party, but, besides moral relativism, this is the main reason why they are moving us in the wrong direction, fast. In order to stay in power, their main tactic is to created dependent constituencies with an ideology of entitlement. If you make people dependent upon cradle-to-grave government programs and services, and fill them with the sense that they are entitled to it, that they have a right to expect it, then they will demand more and refuse to accept any limits.
Notice there are no protests in the streets of Germany over paying for the bail-out. No, instead, in Greece, where despite the fact that other nations will be forced to finance their dependence in order to keep the contagion from spreading, they are refusing, with violence and murder, to accept any cuts in in their entitlements. Just like the NJ teachers’ union, which refuses to take a salary freeze so that programs don’t have to be cut. From an op-ed at NorthJersey.com:
The much reported “death curse” on Governor Christie and the teachers union’s response to it seem to prove the point that the leadership of the New Jersey Education Association is not thinking clearly. Christie’s demand that teachers forgo their wage increases is reasonable, based on the state’s tenuous fiscal situation.
No, no. Endless spending is an entitlement. Give us 10 years, Greece; we’ll catch up.