The "back story", as they say, about the Greek riots and the supposedly harsh cutbacks Greeks are bearing in order to win European Union and IMF (including U.S.) bailouts is not the sort of thing as to make one overly sympathetic.
Greece really is an advanced case of the statism that threatens Spain and Portugal, but also the U.K, and, yes, the U.S. down the road. Public employees are numerous--more numerous than France!--and given lavish pay programs that include 14 months of pay for 12 months of work. Government workers with an extra month's pay each Christmas and Easter. So do government workers for their retirement pensions. Some can retire as early as their 40s.
Government workers get off early in the afternoon and for at least a month in the summer. It is almost impossible to fire anyone.
Meanwhile, the private economy is so heavily regulated that managers are not allowed to fire more than two percent of workers. Banks are forced to close by 1:30 in the afternoon. The VAT tax is 21 percent.
Partly as a result, the underground economy is huge, costing the government treasury billions. Greeks often just don't pay their taxes.
Does this lead to an easy-going society where everyone gets along? No, it leads to cynicism and mutual distrust. Getting a public sector job role is a major ambition for most people. If one fails to get such a post, one comes to despise the people who do.
It's human nature--under the circumstances.
The Germans and others didn't feel like subsidizing a system so riotously out of control. No wonder. But even the austerity measures the EU eventually imposed are mild.
Meanwhile, Paul Krugman of the N.Y. Times would have us believe that the problems in Greece have little bearing on America. John Stossel (now at Fox) begs to differ.
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