Greece Has Had Enough Cutting

Let's think of a family who makes $50,000 but recently found a credit card sent in the mail with a credit limit of $100,000.  The family has a boat load of fun using the credit card.  They take trips to Disney, buy new cars, buy the kids all new clothes, I-pods, phones and give them each cars when they turn 16.  The kids love their parents for all the swell stuff they shower their kids with and all the fun vacations they have gone on to exotic locations.

One day a letter shows up in the mail that says, "Your credit limit has been reached.  Your card has been cancelled.  Please begin repaying the $100,000 you owe at the payment rate of $1,000 per month.  Thank you for your business."

In an instant the family goes from living large to having to live like paupers.  Mom has to get a 2nd job, the kids have to give their cars back since the family can't afford the payments, no more vacations, dad is stressed and fighting with mom, the kids have to start shopping at discount stores and are embarrassed by their line of clothing, etc....

No one is happy.

Now let's look at Greece....and remember Greece is simply a foreshadowing for what is coming for every Western country who believed they could live off debt forever.

The Greek government is saying that the country has taken about as much austerity (government cuts) as it can stand.

“It’s killing us,” says one Greek cabinet minister.

Athens can’t force through another round cuts to pay pensions and social services: “An angry population will take matters into its own hands, the government will collapse and we may end up with political crisis in a near-bankrupt euro-zone country which nobody will know how to control.”

The suspension of talks between Greece and its creditors Friday highlights the Greek dilemma. Slow economic growth and increased budget deficits move the European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund—the “troika”—to demand still more cuts to cover the gap. The Greeks see that as a recipe for a protracted recession, chronic deficits and an unhappy population.

See it here; http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2011/09/02/greece-has-its-fill-of-austerity/

Just like our unhappy family forced to pay back it's debts....so is the population of Greece becoming unhappy.  And unhappiness can lead to anger and an angry population will take matters into its own hands which leads to collapse and political crisis.

Is anyone out there willing to give Greece some money? 

Greece is small but the story is the same as it extends to Spain, Portugal, Italy, then France, Germany and then the U.S.