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As Greece collapses, the big loser is socialism
foxnews.com ^ | Stephen Moore

Posted on 07/07/2015 2:44:01 AM PDT by RoosterRedux

There are no “good” options for now to end this Greek tragedy. It’s best for Greece to take the least bad option, which would be forced bankruptcy. Let Greece go bankrupt. And then let this once rich nation, hit the restart button to rebuild its economy.

What I’m suggesting for Greece is what we might call the Detroit option. Put Greece under receivership and let these new authorities figure out how to manage the debt and decide who will take a hair cut – pensioners, bond holders, welfare recipients, government workers, the IMF. It’s tough love, but it’s the only way out.

I can already hear the heart palpitations of the Wall Street investors. This option puts them in the fetal position wit the thumb in the mouth. They worry about the entire world economy collapsing as creditors flee the sovereign debt of one nation after another – Spain, Argentina, Venezuala, Puerto Rico, Portugal - with obese welfare states, leaky pension systems, and declining tax collections.

But every option is worse. For six years the brainiacs at the International Monetary Fund and the European Union have devised one bailout and debt restructuring scheme after another. None of them have worked. They have only saddled the Greek citizens with even more long term debt that can’t be paid back. Greece is now sitting on $350 billion of debt. Its unpayable and the international monetary experts are deluding themselves into believing that by some magic stroke, this nation of 11 million citizens will some time in the future come up with the funds to repay it.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Germany; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: alexistsipras; europeanunion; france; germany; greece; grexit; nato; socialism; syriza; unitedkingdom; yanisvaroufakis
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1 posted on 07/07/2015 2:44:01 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: RoosterRedux
Trouble is, the media will not let socialism be blamed.

"Bad fiscal policy" happened.

2 posted on 07/07/2015 2:45:43 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: RoosterRedux

No its not.

One can point to over a dozen nations mired in socialism and get the same response in each instance. “It wasn’t tried with the right people.”


3 posted on 07/07/2015 2:45:59 AM PDT by Crazieman (Article V or National Divorce. The only solutions now.)
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To: RoosterRedux
"...Put Greece under receivership ..."

How exactly do you put a sovereign nation "under recievership"? Do you intend to invade and appoint new rulers?

4 posted on 07/07/2015 2:46:48 AM PDT by An.American.Expatriate (Here's my strategy on the War against Terrorism: We win, they lose. - with apologies to R.R.)
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To: RoosterRedux

Only $350 billion? Heck, Chicago isn’t far behind.


5 posted on 07/07/2015 2:50:37 AM PDT by Libloather (Embrace the suck)
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To: An.American.Expatriate
A sovereign nation would have to put itself under receivership (or something tantamount to receivership) to get any foreign lender to assist them.

In a way, Greece tried this with EU and IMF austerity and of course they are worse off because they were unwilling to make the hard decisions that are still looming.

Greeks live above their means via socialism...and that program is dead broke.

6 posted on 07/07/2015 2:55:45 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (WSC: The truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end...)
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To: RoosterRedux

This is a crazy idea. A sovereign nation is not a corporation that is under the umbrella of a court system and supporting legal structures. There is no magic higher level of oversight for a national government. Who would appoint the oversight? Who makes the hard calls as to who gets what?

I watched a socialist propaganda on how the EU should become essentially one nation with one fiscal policy that protects every socialist ideal and “investment” while somehow solving the problems. Austerity is not possible for an elected socialist government. An unelected one would simply redistribute the misery to people who couldn’t protest.


7 posted on 07/07/2015 3:00:54 AM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: RoosterRedux
And yet there is this corps of mostly young people who want to make Bernie Sanders president because he has promised them all the usual enticements of socialism and communism. Try to explain to them that if old Bernie became president and he delivered on even half of his promises, this country's economy would end up like Greece's, and these supporters either give you a blank stare or they are under the illusion that Greece won't happen here because the US has this unlimited supply of money.

And these young people are far more educated than I. Obviously, they didn't learn anything about economics in school.

8 posted on 07/07/2015 3:02:23 AM PDT by fatnotlazy
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To: fatnotlazy

Something for Nothing has been sold/resold to stupid folk since the dawn of mankind. Some things never change.


9 posted on 07/07/2015 3:05:01 AM PDT by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas
Doesn't really matter who gets the blame.

As Maggie Thatcher said, "socialism only works until you run out of other people's money." Or just simply run out of money.

Whether you call it socialism or not, the Greek style of governance has run out of money.

10 posted on 07/07/2015 3:05:03 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (WSC: The truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end...)
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To: RoosterRedux
I wish I could believe this, but socialists are remarkably resilient. Even if they change the name, they continue with the same theme and variations. Obviously socialism is "not to blame" in their tiny little minds, even though it fails universally. They will just try a different flavor. Perhaps they will mix more nationalism into their socialism, or a more overt soviet version.

The one thing I am sure of is that the next step for Greece will not include more individual responsibility or more individual freedom. Whether they try to mirror Obama's particular brand of evil, follow Britain's Labour party and their left wing, or go back to an old failed pattern, they will never increase freedom or shrink government.

11 posted on 07/07/2015 3:06:15 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: fatnotlazy
Young people love socialism because it sounds so romantic (you know...we'll all work together collectively for the good of mankind...sharing all our money...singing as we go).

Mature people hate it because they know it's full of empty promises and, in the end, just doesn't work.

12 posted on 07/07/2015 3:08:46 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (WSC: The truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end...)
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To: Libloather

At last report I believe it was $150 -170 billion for Illinois. What Chicago’s is, I don’t know. Pick on Michigan if you will, but at least we have a balanced budget law.

CC


13 posted on 07/07/2015 3:09:08 AM PDT by Celtic Conservative (Sufficient unto the day are the troubles therof)
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To: fatnotlazy

Or history, especially that of the 20th Century under the Communists.


14 posted on 07/07/2015 3:10:20 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: RoosterRedux

A socialist country may lose a war and may bankrupt and bring famine to a people but socialism never loses.


15 posted on 07/07/2015 3:12:05 AM PDT by arthurus (It's true!)
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To: arthurus
A socialist country may lose a war and may bankrupt and bring famine to a people but socialism never loses.

Right.

But it never really wins either. It's like a drug...always hanging around, tempting the young, but never able to deliver anything but a temporary high.

16 posted on 07/07/2015 3:15:03 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (WSC: The truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end...)
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To: fatnotlazy
Obviously, they didn't learn anything about economics in school.

Read "The Underground History of American Education" on-line for free.

This has been the purpose of compulsory government schooling since its inception in 19th century Germany.

School vouchers is the way to begin unraveling the disaster that is Progressivism.

17 posted on 07/07/2015 3:15:07 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: fatnotlazy
And these young people are far more educated than I. Obviously, they didn't learn anything about economics in school.

In the 1960s and 1970s, I was taught that government is an endless source of money, and that if we did not get very much in welfare, it was because selfish and greedy rich (i.e. Republican) politicians wanted to keep all that money for themselves.

At some point in my 20s, I finally figured out that government does not magically create money and that any wealth the government has is only taken from taxpayers.

The same breed of teachers is still teaching, and many young people will never figure out that the money that supports socialism only comes from people who work. Without that understanding, socialism appears wonderful--you get everything you need and want without having to work for it!

18 posted on 07/07/2015 3:16:40 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: RoosterRedux

It wins what the drug wins, control and power and wealth for the purveyor.


19 posted on 07/07/2015 3:16:46 AM PDT by arthurus (It's true!)
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To: RoosterRedux
Doesn't really matter who gets the blame.

It's the most important matter. The world needs to learn that this is how socialism almost always ends.

20 posted on 07/07/2015 3:18:31 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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