She may have been a harridan and her followers frightened, humorless loons, but she wasn’t actually wrong. And it turns out her supposedly fictional villains live. And they write for Spiked Online.
From raising taxes, including sales taxes, to slashing pensions, the content of the EU bailout package was by its nature undemocratic, since it went against some of the values Greeks had already democratically voted for.
If you’re into bemused laughter, read as much of this as you can take. You won’t make it all the way through, nor should you, and you’ll need to pause from time to time to reassure yourself that you haven’t been accidentally redirected to The Onion. I got to the part about Ayn Rand when I found myself lamenting to the ceiling, “Where do these people think money comes from?” It’s one of those moments, more rare now since I moved to the desert, that I felt as though I’d fallen into the pages of Atlas Shrugged.
Where do they think the money comes from? They pretty much think they can steal it any time they want… before progressing to the belief they can manufacture it out of thin air once there’s nobody left from whom it can be stolen. And as long as most people accept this circular firing squad delusion, it more or less works…
And then Atlas shruggs.
The author is right (Euroskepticism) for all the wrong reasons.
Pardon my spelling…
Why from printing presses of course!
Those wondering how a One World Government might work need only observe the EU.
It’s the testing lab for the experimental concept.
The situation in Greece is not surprising given that using loop holes to cheat on taxes is a national past time.
From talking with German friends and family I’m hearing about a lot of civil unrest because of the bail outs, and it’s not just Greece. The PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) have to smarten up because there is a serious move by the German voters, who are paying the lions share of the bail outs, to force the politicians to take Germany out of the EU if the PIIGS don’t.
“…using loop holes to cheat on taxes is a national past time.”
So, finding a way to avoid the mugger is somehow “cheating?”
The sad part is that most of those don’t connect the theft of their earnings and savings to the tyranny… and think that they should benefit from what is stolen from others. Unfortunately, that’s the same delusion most “taxpayers” in the US labor under.
ML I would agree with you if it were not that the majority of Greeks use the services that they work so diligently to avoid paying for. Avoiding paying taxes for services that one uses is the same thing as walking into a restaurant, having a good meal and skipping out when the bill arrives. What the Greeks need to do is rationalize their government services and live within their means but this will not happen because the Greeks want the “money for nothing and chicks for free” lifestyle.
Here is an example that I was given on how Greeks avoid paying taxes. In Greece if you build a house there is property taxes to deal with. The loop hole is that the taxes are only paid when the house is finished. The way the property tax is avoided is to leave something minor uncompleted like a deck railing thus the house owner can live there but pay no property tax until the house is finished and it never will. Yet the Greek home owner expects that fire, ambulance and police will come when called, the trash will be picked up and water will come out of taps etc., etc…
“The situation in Greece is not surprising given that using loop holes to cheat on taxes is a national past time.”
I don’t understand this concept, “to cheat on taxes”. Please explain it to me.
“ML I would agree with you if it were not that the majority of Greeks use the services that they work so diligently to avoid paying for.”
Ah, but then it is worth while to ensure we berate actual bad behavior and praise good. It is good to “cheat” on taxes (that is, to avoid theft). It is bad to consume government services.
BTW, it is also not a good idea to adopt memes dished out by the Ministry of Propaganda, such as “cheating on taxes”.
“live within their means”
An individual is able to live within his means. It is impossible for any collective.
BTW there was some explanation printed about all this so-called “cheating” by Greeks, from the ex-minister of taxation. It turns out that an astounding 30% of Greek workers are self-employed, entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs by their very nature do what they can to avoid theft, and often can do quite a lot. Employees on the other hand, are stuck and have to put up with it.
Seems to me, entrepreneurs are to be admired.
Hey Paul, you make some very good points. Re the tax evading issue these links illustrate what is going on.
http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/economics/oecd-economic-surveys-greece-2013_eco_surveys-grc-2013-en#page79
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_evasion_and_corruption_in_Greece
I couldn’t care less how the Greeks administer themselves. What bothers the hell out of me is that the Greek actions effect others. As of early 2015, the Greeks are into the pockets of others for €323 billion. The debt to Germany, France and Italy is roughly €130 billion in total. The IMF is owed another €32 billion and the ECB €20 billion and the rest comes from various sources.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/28/investing/greek-debt-who-has-most-to-lose/index.html
I know, and I think you would agree with me that the political leaders and banks are fools for lending the money and should have let the Greeks sink, but they did and the clock can’t be turned back. There is simply too much money on the table.
I have for a long time believed in the credo “I swear by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” Essentially on a macro level the Greeks are exactly the opposite of this. In their perfect socialist world they would like the creditors to forgive the debt because they see themselves as having the greatest need (From each according to his ability, to each according to his need). What is stopping this, as I learned on my last visit to Germany, is the public outrage against the politicians for the bailouts and against the Greeks for not changing their unsustainable spending ways.
As I learned last fall there is a serious threat to the politicians in Germany over the Greek situation (and the illegals who sneak over the border situation too, but that is another story). The Greeks could, by their greed cause the house of cards that is the EU to fall and reform into a single political entity similar to the United States. Given the socialist nature of Europe I’m not sure that a unified power that size would be a good thing. At least for the time being getting the EU governments to work together is like herding cats on all but major issues.