The moochers won in Greece

Flopping Aces ^ | 01-29-15 | Robert H. Lee

[Starman417]

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.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Greece will go left—hard left—watch as they loot the rich and sell off Greek Heitage—watch for the shortages and starvations—then they will go hard right—Neo-Nazi in a bloody Civil War. In they end they will long for a King.

[BobL]

“Greece is about to find out what happens when one says, “FU! I’m not paying back a single dime you loaned me!” followed by, “Dude, I need to borrow some more money...” “

You mean like Argentina...a country about to get its THIRD ROUND of financing after welching twice on its debts.

There is simply NO WAY to stop bankers from throwing away other people’s money...that’s EXACTLY what gave us our mortgage meltdown. Grease will have NO PROBLEM getting its money in the future...just as Iceland did.