Where Did Our Real Wealth Go?

Pajamas Media ^ | 2-17-10 | Victor Davis Hanson

[radioone]

Economists have given us all the usual diagnoses of what went wrong in a now bankrupt Greece — high taxes, tax cheating, too generous retirements, unsustainable entitlements, government corruption, and anemic demography.

[1rudeboy]

I read in FT that Greece’s retirement age is 55. That’s why Chancellor Merkel of Germany is ticked-off. Germany’s is 67 (if I remember the article correctly).

[Toddsterpatriot]

Greece's government intends to raise the national pension age and ban early retirement as it tries to tackle its huge budget deficit.

The socialist government said it wanted to increase the average retirement age from 61 to 63 by 2015.

Source

GREECE: The European Union has warned Greece that within five years it will face a problem due to increased aging of its population. With one of the lowest birthrates in the EU, its population of 10 million is rapidly aging. Experts say Greece must begin dealing with the problem before 2010, when costs for pension are expected to skyrocket. Under the current system, the basic retirement age for men is 65 and for women it is 60.

Source

Greece will be okay if they raise import tariffs. A 100% tariff should work fine.

[1rudeboy]

Hmm . . . I’m gonna’ have to pull that FT out of my car. It’s from Feb. 13/14th, I just read it over lunch (I’m a slacker).

[redgolum]

The wealth went away because we as a culture decided to live for today instead of build for the future.

Such is the way of the world I guess. If we are lucky we end up like Britain, if we are unlucky like Rome.

[Dust in the Wind]

Wealth “creation” has never stopped. It is just that society has not wanted to pay its true price.