Posted on 07/19/2009 10:44:14 AM PDT by Steelfish
Fiscal ruin of the Western world beckons
For a glimpse of what awaits Britain, Europe, and America as budget deficits spiral to war-time levels, look at what is happening to the Irish welfare state.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 18 Jul 2009
Events have already forced Premier Brian Cowen to carry out the harshest assault yet seen on the public services of a modern Western state. He has passed two emergency budgets to stop the deficit soaring to 15pc of GDP. They have not been enough.
The expert An Bord Snip report said last week that Dublin must cut deeper, or risk a disastrous debt compound trap.
A further 17,000 state jobs must go (equal to 1.25m in the US), though unemployment is already 12pc and heading for 16pc next year.
Education must be cut 8pc. Scores of rural schools must close, and 6,900 teachers must go. "The attacks outlined in this report would represent an education disaster and light a short fuse on a social timebomb", said the Teachers Union of Ireland.
Nobody is spared. Social welfare payments must be cut 5pc, child benefit by 20pc. The Garda (police), already smarting from a 7pc pay cut, may have to buy their own uniforms. Hospital visits could cost £107 a day, etc, etc.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I like how the method of always cutting vital services to elicit for tax hikes is a universally accepted practice.
We’re closing in on SHTF.
/s
He's just following the lead of our Obamassiah, who has decreed a $2 trillion deficit on a $14 trillion GDP "Is A Good Thing"™. After all, as Joe Biden said, we have to spend money so we don't go bankrupt!
You silly FReepers with your antiquated notions of budgets and fiscal responsibility. It's time you learn that all bends to the will of the Obamassiah!
/sarc
“We’re closing in on SHTF.”
That’s a fact.
17000 government jobs eliminated, what a great start. Lets start with getting rid of 1mm us government jobs.
Unfortunately, the fan is already so full it’s not even spinning anymore. So, TSDTTF ( the sh*t drops to the floor).
They must have run out of those other people’s money and the other people.
I do not believe there is an example, since 1932, of a government responsible to voters EVER truly cutting the size or the cost of the whole enterprise.
Every year, the costs go up. Every year, the number of employees increases.
It has yet to be shown that this can be accomplished without revolution and limitation of the franchise.
Perhaps it can, but I'm dubious.
what a vivid visual. at what point does it burn out?
wish we could make people angrier about what’s going to happen to them if the boy king has his way
Whatever Cowen does will seem like child's play compared to what a future US government will have to do in a decade or so if Zer"O" gets what he wants rammed through Congress. Which will be a slam dunk unless a few Democrat Senators who haven't bought quite as deeply into Zer"O" style collectivism as their fellow Democrats come to their senses and vote their consciences instead of their future popularity in the Socialist-Democrat party.
Sadly, if the polls I read are anywhere close to correct a majority of today's Americans want socialism in favor of the traditional American free enterprise system and personal responsibility. That system along with God's grace and favor made America the great nation is was until recently when the full effects of 1/2 century of socialist/atheist brainwashing in government schools began to kick in. IMHO America is finished as a great and free nation if Zer"O"s collectivist agenda is typical of what the freeloading majority of Americans want from government. America enjoyed a great 2 century + run of freedom and unprecedented prosperity. My greatest regret is that the 2 century + run is ending just as my grandchildren are nearing young adulthood.
It makes me almost physically ill when I think of what could have been if collectivism had not been favorably introduced into our schools and universities, the media, and apostate churches, and had not been relentlessly promoted by Godless liberals at every level of government during the last 6 or 7 decades.
The last, greatest ever financial bubble.....Ladies and Gentlemen...is THE US GOVERNMENT!!!!!
Your post is right on target. If 0 gets a second term, the US will be competing with Papua New Guinea for dominance on the world stage. With mountains of debt, decrepit public schools, uncontrolled immigration, a culture devoid of any real Christianity, indeed hostile to it, and a government run health care system in tatters, and an electoral voting system corrupted by a tribal spoils system, we are in the last stages of baking the recipe for Third World status. And all because of 53% of the voting public. Or shall we say the majority of white WOMEN voters who overwhelmingly voted for 0. God help us.
But the virtually traffic free, perfectly paved make-work mountain forestry roads to nowhere were great for riding to mountain bike trails! BTW, I'm not sure what a e_SEmD is, but it didn't seem to help Japan's economy either.
Unfortunately it will take less than a decade IMHO. We are at the tipping point, the next steps are confiscation of assets/wealth for “the children” if things get worse, which they are likely to.
If we avoid capntax and healthcare then we just delay the inevitable.
If Bam does not get his programs, then what will he do? He is betting the next 7.5 years on what happens in the next 3 months.
Bad news.
sschu
Ping.
Key quote:
“Is this a replay of mid-2008 when the Fed lost its nerve, bristling over criticism that it had cut rates too low (then 2pc)? Remember what happened. Fed hawks in Dallas, St Louis, and Atlanta talked of rate rises. That had consequences. Markets tightened in anticipation, and arguably triggered the collapse of Lehman Brothers, AIG, Fannie and Freddie that Autumn.”
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