Greece Starts to Crack

We have been posting on Greece for more than a few years now as we have always believed they are a foreshadowing of what will ultimately come for America.

Greece lived beyond its means more many years.  Once they got into the European Union, they found they were able to borrow money and VERY CHEAP interest rates.  The lure of easy money was simply too great for the politicians and Greeks to say "no" to.  So they started down the path of EASY LIVING using OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY.

Sound familiar?

And now the easy money is gone, no one wants to loan them any more and to add insult to injury....THEY HAVE TO START PAYING BACK THE MONEY THEY BORROWED!

This sure sounds like the recipe for a collapse...and then anarchy.  And it looks like that day may have already started.  The social fabric of Greek society is starting to unravel.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Looking out across a room full of reporters gathered to welcome French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday, Greece's President Karolos Papoulias gave a stark warning about the state of the country after three harsh years of government spending cuts, joblessness and tax hikes.

 

"We are faced with a societal explosion if any more pressure is put on society," he said.

Not only are Greece's 1.35 million unemployed unable to make ends meet, but a growing number of those still employed are struggling to feed, heat and clothe themselves — and pay the increasingly hefty taxes the government is relying on to turn the economy around.

Greece's largest union, the GSEE, has called a general strike Wednesday to protest a new series of austerity measures. It warns that the labor force — which includes a large public sector — has been too badly weakened to help the battered country recover.

The crisis has left 450,000 households with no one working, while a one-year limit on unemployment benefits — and strict rules to qualify for them — mean just 225,000 jobless Greeks are currently receiving monthly state assistance.

Maria Kanga, an unemployed mother of two, is worried about what she'll do when her assistance runs out this summer.

She was fired from a chain of record stores that went out of business last year. Along with more than 150 other employees, she was left unpaid for five months and then received no severance money.

According to union researchers, two-thirds of employees in the hammered private sector no longer receive regular pay. Adding to these problems are the large increases in taxes that Greeks have to pay.

"In other words, Greek workers and unemployed people may soon not have enough money left to pay taxes while covering their basic needs. If that happens, it would be the worst possible outcome for the Greek economy and Greek society."

That, he argues, could leave the government unable fully cover its own commitments — including wage and pension payments — causing even greater poverty.

When contacted by the Associated Press, officials the government's powerful new Department of Public Revenue refused to confirm widespread local media reports that 2.5 million tax payers will be sent notices starting next month demanding overdue payments.

"The question is when the tax capacity is used up ... Up until now, the state has fallen behind on payments to suppliers but it is able to pay wages and salaries," Robolis said.

"But if the situation gets worse I'm not certain it will be able to. If you look at other countries that went through a crisis ... when then they reached a certain point and the state told them they could not pay them, that's when the tension flared up."

Here;  http://news.yahoo.com/greeces-weakened-workforce-starts-crack-073509752--finance.html

Holy tension explosion!  You mean when people have no money, no food, no jobs, no hope and the government sends them a BILL FOR BACK TAXES...that tension could flare up?

I wonder who the Greeks will blame their situation on?  Gypsies?  Jews?  Turks?  Europe? 

Of course humans NEVER believe it was their own fault of electing politicians who promised them free money today with NO PAIN EVER!  It always has to be someone else's fault and certainly you aren't going to sit at home starving and watching your kids starve.  As tensions heat and money and products become even scarcer....people will break into family clans as they try and stick together to survive.  Once that happens, the Johnson clan will look across the street at the Goldstein clan and see them roasting a turkey and say, "Those dang Jews!  I never liked them anyway and now they are eating a turkey that SHOULD BE OURS!"

And that's when the tension will flare up and ultimately lead to violence.  When that happens will Europe have any armies willing to go in and separate the Greeks?  Or will the just send some musicians into Greece to sing them renditions of the song "Give Peace a Chance"?

Also, look for fiery politicians to take center stage who will start blaming their self-inflicted misery on others.  That's pretty much verbatim of how Hitler came to power.