Quote:<a class="bbc_url" href='http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/19/greece-military-spending-debt-crisis'>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/19/greece-military-spending-debt-crisis</a>


Just to educate yourself a little. Not to say Greek perks weren't overly generous. But hey I'm sure the people would rather retire early than have extra German submarines.

 

If anything, it illustrates the nature of a socialist system.  It's essentially "we want to buy this stuff and use a credit card to 'pay' for it".  Well, when the credit card bill comes due, they can't pay it because they need to pay for other "needs" such as pensions, the "free" holidays, etc.

 

It doesn't work.

 

If you want a real life example, do this.  Pay your bills and buy everything with a credit card every month.  Buy a few things that are "beyond your means" in the meantime.  You know, the latest phone, latest TV, etc.  Put it all on the credit card and just pay the minimum balance over a period of say 1 year.  My guess is that over the period of that one year, you wouldn't be able to pay off that credit card.  You might be able to afford the minimum payment, but it won'd do a dent in the balance that you owe because of the interest.

 

Now assume that you lost your job and you only have whatever savings that you have to live on and pay your bills.  For the first few months, you are alright, but suddenly, the amount of savings is less than the amount on that credit card.  There is no possible way to pay the credit card off even if you use all of your savings.

 

In a very basic way, that's exactly what happened to Greece and is an example of the socialist philosophy.

---