Dear Greece: Sooner or later, you run out of other people's money...

[Guest032516]

Margaret Thatcher succinctly summarized the problem with socialism - "sooner or later, you run out of other people's money."

Greece is running out of other people's money. In particular, the IMF's money and Germany's money.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/e...-Controls.html

Couldn't happen to nicer bunch of redistributionists.

[TheDaliLama]

Bernie Sanders just dropped his soap.

[DSK]

Originally Posted by ExNYer

Margaret Thatcher succinctly summarized the problem with socialism - "sooner or later, you run out of other people's money."

Greece is running out of other people's money. In particular, the IMF's money and Germany's money.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/e...-Controls.html

Couldn't happen to nicer bunch of redistributionists.

This is the great thing about the Federal Reserve - we don't run out of our own money!!!

[IIFFOFRDB]

Originally Posted by DSK

This is the great thing about the Federal Reserve - we don't run out of our own money!!!

until we do...

[BigLouie]

Originally Posted by ExNYer

Couldn't happen to nicer bunch of redistributionists.

You have no idea what you are talking about and why Greece is in the situation it is in. Their problems have NOTHING to do with redistriubtion of wealth.


First they have a cash flow problem. No one pays their taxes. Not business, not individuals. Tax collection is a huge problem. You know how Republicans want to keep cutting taxes, kinda the same thing.

Second, they have huge bureaucratic problem. Everyone goes to work for the government or expects to get a job from the government. So everyone has to justify themselves so doing business in Greece is a nightmare because of the bureaucratic maze they have to run through to get anything done. I know the Republicans keep saying they want a smaller government and less government but when Bush was elected and the Republicans controlled both houses they had a list of 100 government agencies they wanted to cut or reduce funding. Know what happened, no one got their funding cut and none of the agencies were cut. They in fact got more funding from the Republicans.

The sad thing is that here in the USA the immigrant class that starts the most small business are the Greek.

Their issues have nothing to do with socialism and redistribution.

[Guest032516]

Originally Posted by BigLouie

You have no idea what you are talking about and why Greece is in the situation it is in. Their problems have NOTHING to do with redistriubtion of wealth.

First they have a cash flow problem. No one pays their taxes. Not business, not individuals. Tax collection is a huge problem. You know how Republicans want to keep cutting taxes, kinda the same thing.

Second, they have huge bureaucratic problem. Everyone goes to work for the government or expects to get a job from the government. So everyone has to justify themselves so doing business in Greece is a nightmare because of the bureaucratic maze they have to run through to get anything done. I know the Republicans keep saying they want a smaller government and less government but when Bush was elected and the Republicans controlled both houses they had a list of 100 government agencies they wanted to cut or reduce funding. Know what happened, no one got their funding cut and none of the agencies were cut. They in fact got more funding from the Republicans.

The sad thing is that here in the USA the immigrant class that starts the most small business are the Greek.

Their issues have nothing to do with socialism and redistribution.

Horseshit.

They dodge taxes because taxes are so high. No one tries to avoid a 10% income tax. LOTS of people try to dodge a 60% income tax.

And all that government red tape is another form of income redistribution. Just like in France, when government makes it impossible to fire people and mandates generous benefits, income is being redistributed.

When government workers can retire at 50 with full pensions and generous health benefits, what is that if not income redistribution?

Huge public sectors bleeding dry a small private sector is income redistribution.

[TheDaliLama]

Yep

[Ex-CEO]

Originally Posted by BigLouie

You have no idea what you are talking about and why Greece is in the situation it is in. Their problems have NOTHING to do with redistriubtion of wealth.


First they have a cash flow problem. No one pays their taxes. Not business, not individuals. Tax collection is a huge problem. You know how Republicans want to keep cutting taxes, kinda the same thing.

Second, they have huge bureaucratic problem. Everyone goes to work for the government or expects to get a job from the government. So everyone has to justify themselves so doing business in Greece is a nightmare because of the bureaucratic maze they have to run through to get anything done. I know the Republicans keep saying they want a smaller government and less government but when Bush was elected and the Republicans controlled both houses they had a list of 100 government agencies they wanted to cut or reduce funding. Know what happened, no one got their funding cut and none of the agencies were cut. They in fact got more funding from the Republicans.

The sad thing is that here in the USA the immigrant class that starts the most small business are the Greek.

Their issues have nothing to do with socialism and redistribution.

You inadvertently hit the nail on the head with the part of your post highlighted in red, which makes a point contrary to that you apparently intended.

You are correct that a very large percentage of the Greek workforce indeed works for the government. And they have always been able to count on retiring at an early age with full pension benefits, too. In fact, the country isn't much more than a pension/entitlement state.

People engaged in 'hazardous' occupations get to retire at 50 or 55 with FULL pension benefits. One occupation deemed 'hazardous' in Greece is hairdresser, because they work with potentially toxic dyes. You can't make this shit up.

All this adds up to a SHITLOAD of redistribution.

You're right about the fact that there's a bureaucratic maze, though. But that's a natural consequence of creating too fucking much government, isn't it?

The Greek private sector and export sector simply aren't big enough and strong enough to support all the cronyism and vote-buying.

[BigLouie]

Here is another issue example. The railroad had annual revenue of 100 million and expenses of 700 million. It would be cheaper to put all rail passengers in a taxi

[Guest032516]

Originally Posted by BigLouie

Here is another issue example. The railroad had annual revenue of 100 million and expenses of 700 million. It would be cheaper to put all rail passengers in a taxi

Income redistribution again, right?

The government takes taxes from folks with better paying jobs and subsidizes a service used mostly by lower income people. They ride the train for far below cost. Using your numbers the tickets should cost 7 times as much.

[BigLouie]

That is what you are not under standing or accepting people are not paying taxes. 40% of all taxable goods, services and income go unreported and no taxes are correct. Every doctor in Greece report a yearly income below 12,000 so that they do not have to pay taxes. If they had an IRS Greece every single doctor would be in jail

[nwarounder]

The solution for Greece

Step 1 Put bullets in the guns
Step 2 The government quits spending MORE than they bring in
Step 3 Wait for the violent rioters
Step 4 Pull the trigger

Problem solved, now get back to work

[JD Barleycorn]

Originally Posted by BigLouie

You have no idea what you are talking about and why Greece is in the situation it is in. Their problems have NOTHING to do with redistriubtion of wealth.


First they have a cash flow problem. No one pays their taxes. Not business, not individuals. Tax collection is a huge problem. You know how Republicans want to keep cutting taxes, kinda the same thing.

Second, they have huge bureaucratic problem. Everyone goes to work for the government or expects to get a job from the government. So everyone has to justify themselves so doing business in Greece is a nightmare because of the bureaucratic maze they have to run through to get anything done. I know the Republicans keep saying they want a smaller government and less government but when Bush was elected and the Republicans controlled both houses they had a list of 100 government agencies they wanted to cut or reduce funding. Know what happened, no one got their funding cut and none of the agencies were cut. They in fact got more funding from the Republicans.

The sad thing is that here in the USA the immigrant class that starts the most small business are the Greek.

Their issues have nothing to do with socialism and redistribution.

Better go back to your talking points and discover that Greeks "retire" in their 40s because of government programs. They have high powered government benefits that fewer and fewer people were paying for. Of course this is all about redistribution and socialism. How you think Greek got this chance? They elected a government that tried to cut spending but the Greeks would not hear of it. So they brought the socialist back in who promised the world. The EU balked at putting more money into a bottomless hole.

You should be worried about Puerto Rico. They on the verge of declaring bankruptcy and who is going to bail them out?

[Whirlaway]

Greece will soon be a zombie economy...........the Greek government's mismanagement had EVERYTHING to do with wealth redistribution. The Greeks thought they could continue with their welfare state and the rest of Europe would pay for it. That bullshit came to a halt. Brussels (seat of the EU) has no stomach to make Portugal pay the pensioners in Greece.
__________________

“How can something like this happen without prior warning?” asked Angeliki Psarianou, a 67-year-old retired public servant, who stood in the drizzle after arriving too late at one empty ATM in the Greek capital.

No warning? Retired public servant? But, but . . . how can we run out of other people’s money?

[nwarounder]

Originally Posted by BigLouie

You have no idea what you are talking about and why Greece is in the situation it is in. Their problems have NOTHING to do with redistriubtion of wealth.


First they have a cash flow problem. No one pays their taxes. Not business, not individuals. Tax collection is a huge problem. You know how Republicans want to keep cutting taxes, kinda the same thing.

Their issues have nothing to do with socialism and redistribution.

Sorry I cut the Bush part out, but Bush has nothing to do with their problem.

But you couldn't be more right, and wrong at the same time. You are right that they have a huge tax collection problem because no one pays their taxes.

What you fail to recognize, as with their leader, Obama and any other Socialist is WHY? Why does no one want to pay their fair share of taxes? Why does everyone lie about what they make in order to not pay their fair share of taxes?

In listening to their leader during the elections and Obama's, you can't help but notice the similarity in them. Neither one of them can understand why, neither can wrap their head around why a working person with money would not want to give it away to someone that doesn't work.

That's why Socialism always fails, the majority of people will never voluntarily work and give their money, to the capable who will not. It's just human nature.