Neo-Nazi party wins 7 percent of popular vote in Greece

Greece is the perfect example of the dichotomy of left and right wing blindness. The working poor celebrated the vast expansion of public sector jobs that was touted as the equalization of economic disparity, while the rich continued on their path of avoiding taxes and accumulating wealth, to the point of hiding their wealth with tarps over their swimming pools. Meanwhile foreign banks poured money into the false assertion that the Greece economy was still strong, in concert with the Greek politicians that were trying to ride the money wave by hiding the true state of the economy.

Who is to blame? Who cares. The right says that it is the irresponsible widening of public sector jobs. The left says that it is the non-tax paying rich. The truth is both sides are responsible, and no one wants to buck up and take the burden of fixing the problem. The rich need to pay their fair share. The working poor need to accept the fact that increasing the number of public sector jobs isn't the way towards economic health. Whether they stay on the euro standard or not, whether they default on their debt or not, the primary issue is whether they take responsibility and share the burden.

Caving into the German idea of austerity hurts the poor. Capitulating to the leftist idea of burdening only the rich hurts incentive to produce. Let's hope that a balance will bring them the surest path to recovery. And, I might add, the US as well.

By US comparison, I simply mean that we should not simply place blame on public service excesses. The hedge fund managers, the micro moguls, the cream of the NBA, NFL, and hollywood stars are the new privileged class. They pay one third of what they used to pay under Dwight Eisenhower. But everyone wants to win the lotto, and they are afraid that the gov will take more than half of their take. So we have 999,999,999 people who think that lotto is a good investment, and if they are one of hundreds of millions that didn't win, the difference between 30% and 60% tax will be more significant than whether the lotto will lift them out of poverty. Much less that the lotto makes the poor, poorer.

mogur said:

By US comparison, I simply mean that we should not simply place blame on public service excesses. The hedge fund managers, the micro moguls, the cream of the NBA, NFL, and hollywood stars are the new privileged class. They pay one third of what they used to pay under Dwight Eisenhower. But everyone wants to win the lotto, and they are afraid that the gov will take more than half of their take. So we have 999,999,999 people who think that lotto is a good investment, and if they are one of hundreds of millions that didn't win, the difference between 30% and 60% tax will be more significant than whether the lotto will lift them out of poverty. Much less that the lotto makes the poor, poorer.

Click to expand...

999,999,999 people? There are only 300,000,000+. lol

Many Europeans resent the restrictions the EU has imposed on them. Now that they are living through hard times, repressed anger is rising to the surface. Greek Neo Nazis are not unique. New Finns who are merely conservative have won more votes as have conservative and liberal splinter parties in other countries.

France is another example of anger at the politicians. People don't know where to turn, so they throw all of the bums out. Thriftier northern Europeans resent the money their taxes are spent to bail out the south.

Europe is not the United States, but their problems will engulf us all.

If Greece leaves the EU, which is a real possibility, then the country will plunge into a deep depression. And Europe into a long recession. The rise of the far right will continue.

David said:

999,999,999 people? There are only 300,000,000+. lol

Click to expand...

Grin, got me. But you do know that there is over US 611 million dollars awarded each week worldwide? And with a 30-50% expected return rate, that means 1.2-1.8 billion US dollars invested. If the average purchase is 5 tickets, a quarter billion people invest in lotto worldwide each week. I think that may approach 1 billion people over the course of a year. So nanner, nanner.

But, yes, not in the US. YOU WIN, what can I say?

I never thought of a lottery. Greece could solve their short term problems by corning the ticket market and winning a reprieve.

Or maybe they could buy farm land in the UK as Scandinavians are doing.