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Of Bureaucrazies & Demoncracy: The People Must Be Overthrown
Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,
Perhaps I should apologize for writing about Greece all the time. Thing is, not only have I just arrived in Athens last night (and been duly showered in ouzo), but Greece is the proverbial early harbinger of everything that’s wrong with the world (not to worry, I know that’s a hyperbole), and of everything that could be done about it.
That places a responsibility on the shoulders of Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras and his team that maybe they don’t want, and for all I know don’t deserve either. But they’re all we have, and besides, they’re all their own people have. In that sense, this is not about everything that’s wrong with the world, other than that’s the same as everything that’s wrong with Greece.
I was struck last night, talking to people here in Athens, by how much their appreciation of Tsipras, his overall composure and the way he handles the Troika talks, has increased over the past five months. They were doubtful about him before the Syriza election win; they no longer are.
Still, the negotiations are nice and all, but they’re not going anywhere, and they never will. The Troika side of the table is interested in one thing only: to humiliate Athens and force it into ultimate submission, along the lines of those photographs we’ve come to know of Abu Graibh.
Yanis Varoufakis labeled the Troika policies vis-a-vis Greece ‘fiscal waterboarding’ when he started out as finance minister, and here’s thinking he should have stuck with that image in a much more persistent and a much louder fashion.
Yes, we know, Syriza doesn’t have the mandate to take the country out of the eurozone. A daily dose of fear tactics in the domestic and international media still have Greeks, even Syriza voters, scared stiff about going it alone.
It’s time for Tsipras to turn to his people, on national TV, and say look, whatever we can discuss with the Troika, and whatever compromise we may be able to reach, there is no option on or off the table that would allow for you, the people of Greece, to not be debt slaves for the rest of your lives.
The European Union is merely a crude modern version of a feudal society (but without the debt jubilee older versions had), that’s all the morals that Brussels and Berlin can muster. And, Tsipras should say, if that is what you want, if you want to be slaves instead of a free people, tell me so. I will draw my conclusions from that.
But this is getting painful. We have an entire team of Greece’s brightest drawing up plan after plan, most of which are never even discussed by the Troika. It all comes down to you, the people, and we, your representatives, being rudely insulted every minute of the day by people whose only interest is their own personal careers and agendas.
I, Alexis Tsipras, think I deserve better than that, and much more importantly, I think my people deserve better than that. But in these negotiations, no matter how long they last, we will never get what we deserve. The Troika seeks to humiliate us, and force us on our knees with our pants down our ankles and a hood over our faces..
This will take courage on the part of Tsipras; it may well end his political career. But such courage is exactly what the Greek people need to see. They need a leader who is willing to put it all on the line, or else why would they themselves?
The threat of Armageddon following an exit from the euro is an abstract and unknown phenomenon akin to various bogeymen used to keep children in check, akin to the threat of drowning that makes waterboarding such an inhumane experience.
But whatever may or will happen, there is nothing that says or guarantees that a euro-less Greece will be worse off than it is now. Not even from a purely financial point of view (other than for an initial short period of time).
What the Greeks are sure to gain, though, is their independence, their dignity, their pride. Why on earth would they, once they understand the predicament, vote to stay on and pay their odious debts and kowtow to the five families in Brussels and Berlin for the rest of their lives?
It makes no sense at all, and it makes no sense for Tsipras and his team to keep on negotiating for a deal that will never do anything but humiliate them, and shackle the people who voted for them. There is no other possible option on the table, and there won’t be in the future.
As I was writing this in the early Athens morning, I saw an article by my dear friend Steve Keen come in, and I’m very pleased to see Steve think along the same lines I do, at the same time.
Bureaucrazies Versus Democracy
This belief that economists know better than politicians how to run an economy was enshrined in the Maastricht Treaty itself, which limited government deficits to 3% of GDP and government debt to 60% of GDP. It was a set of rules designed to shackle political freedom, so that the economy could flourish under the incorruptible leadership of experts.
Some experts. Firstly they designed a system which would only work if capitalism never had crises. Secondly, when a crisis hit, rather than backpedalling on their flawed rules, they doubled up on them. Then, when the people had the temerity to elect a government which opposed their agenda… Well it’s obvious, isn’t it? The people must be overthrown.
I know from personal conversations with Varoufakis and his advisors, as well as from the public record, that Syriza is willing to do almost anything to stay within the Euro. As Yanis put it at the INET conference in Paris in April, the Euro is a bit like the Hotel California: you should never check into it in the first place, but if you do, you can never leave.
But the conditions the IMF, EU and ECB are insisting upon here are so extreme, and their behaviour so counter to the very concept of democracy, that maybe the Greeks would do better to show them what a democratic government can do. Maybe they should leave the Euro, and default on all their debts—especially those to the Troika. The financial stimulus from throwing off the yoke of debt may counterbalance the initial chaos from re-instituting a national currency in a seriously damaged society.
It may also teach the bureaucrazies -and no, that is not a misprint- a lesson about the limits of bureaucratic power.
You know, it’s true that maybe it’s too much for outsiders such as Steve Keen and myself to ask of Alexis Tsipras, and the people of Greece, to jump into a big unknown. But it’s also too much to bear to watch the inane piece of theater being played out by quasi elected B movie protagonists.
And no, none of us get a free pass on this one. Your voice is long overdue. Because no matter where you are or who you are, whether you’re American or European, it’s still your government, acting in your name, that supports and magnifies the craziness unloaded upon the cradle of democracy.
All the Greek people know until now is that Europe and the IMF are attempting to strangle them. Still, so many among us don’t agree with that at all. Thing is, it’s time to let that be known. To the people of Greece, and to our own ‘leaders’ who if we don’t get vocal will continue to do as they please. Just because the people you’ve elected don’t have any morals doesn’t mean you don’t have to either.
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DemoNcracy!!! Booyah!
Greece is fucked.
Come on folks. Let's get this train wreck clusterfuck shit show on the road. Who's got the popcorn?
"Everything that's wrong with the world."
Simple - Socialism/Totalitarianism. Once you go down that road there is no turning back as the government insists, with its citizens at gunpoint, that their citizens (and illegal aliens) give them more and more. For the good of the children, minorities, women, and the planet, of course...
OK. Someone believes that totalitarian rule is the way to fabulous lives and prosperity for all. Just like in North Korea.
Wait a minute... Kim Jong-un. GET OFF OF ZEROHEDGE and go do some brutal dictator stuff.
Raul's first mistake is thinking Tsipras has some kind of control, thats the illusion all modern leaders have, They all say they are the "common people" but their actions prove otherwise.
I don't know which people Raul conversed with here in Athens. If I knew he was here, I would invite him to my office in a previously busy mall which has been all but dead in the last few months, and let the rest of the shop owners tell him how they think about their vote few months ago.
What is being presented as "democracy in danger" is nothing to do with democracy. It is (and has been) a conglomerate of organized lies (as in organized crime) which has been ruling and keeping people under control. What is right now happening is that our local gang of organized liars has met its Nemesis in a much larger gang of organized lies opreating out of Brussels.
Tsipras is a liar, as all his predecessors have been. I see hope in these times only in the ultimate irreversibel exposure of the big lies that we have been served with all our lives. If we all still prefer one liar over the other for personal reasons or personal interests, we defeinitely will deserve what we will get.
Let me guess, Golden Dawn neo-nazi?
I've said before that I don't vote for nazi cunts. That said, they do have a fairly good grasp of the shit that's been going on. In terms of what they are proposing as a solution they are nazi cunt liars as well.
Nationalists, not Nazis. The Nazi rap is just big liberal media propaganda. They are protecting their country from foreign barbarians just like we SHOULD be doing in the US. Look at Sweden to see what happens when the hordes are allowed in.
Thanks for some boots-on-the-ground perspective, skistroni.
The Greeks, like so many in America, borrowed more than they ever could afford and now they want more free shit - paid for by someone else.
After all, it's their right, to demand more of your money.
Free shit America crowd, Free shit Greece crowd - the only difference is the language.
Much like the Confederate Flag, Accountability is a word that should be deleted from our conversation. It's such an outdated concept.
And shoild lenders be accountable for making loans that they knew could not be repaid?
Nah.
They were just trying to make their shareholders and themselves rich. Besides that, they wisely hedged their bets and offloaded the risk on some rube who was also happy getting a slice.
What could go wrong?
Hahaha.
"And shoild lenders be accountable for making loans that they knew could not be repaid?"
It depends. In many cases the federal government has forced lenders to make loans to people who they knew would not repay. Get the government out of the loan business and loans (interest, terms, etc.) will be based on the ability to repay. The free market works. Government controlled lending institutions do not work - as we have witnessed with the housing market. Not lending $500,000 to someone with no income, to buy a house, is rayyyyycist, you see. Those loans must be made or the gubmint sends you to jail.
They probably wouldn't need free shit if they hadn't been buried in free money/debt printing from thin fucking air by the five douche bag slave loving fucking families.
Yeah that's it, blame everything on everyday people who used to have a job to work at and pay off their illegal fucking debt created by assholes from nothing, because they feel everyone besides them deserves shit.
"Perhaps I should apologize for writing"
No need to read further.
I know, right?
who are "the five families in Brussels and Berlin" ?
If I were Yanis Varoufakis, I wouldnt be riding my bike round Athens anymore in case of a Drone attack. We all know what happened to Gadafi
Ghadafi didn't get droned, AFAIK he got a dagger up the date.
Culturally, Greece is just being Greece. The only 'harbinger' here is the EU's lack of military might to repo Crete.
Better dead than a slave.
The five families= Whats wrong with the world.
I doubt leaving the Eurozone will give the Greek people back their independence, dignity and pride. The Greek people have been mentally conditioned to an entitlement mindset. Sadly, until this thinking changes, the people of Greece will always be slaves to their circumstances.
Normally I like Raul's posts but this seems wrong. As even Larry Summer's pointed out, this is a problem of Greece's own making.
There's nothing in the EU charter that would have prevented Greece from being where Germany is and vs. vrs. excpet Greece (and Germany's) own management. Therefore THEY CANNOT BE FEUDAL. In a Feudal system there's no opportunity for serfs to be anything but serfs.
With 75% of government expenditures on payments to government employees (50% of THAT going to pensions) and virtually every household in Greece dependent on that flow of funds THIS WAS EASILY PREDICTABLE.
In general, Greece deserves what they get; they put themselves here. It's sad for the minority that didn't want this situation and didn't live with their head burried in the sand.
Even if the facts you are mentioning are correct (with are not) and if you say that Greeks deserve what they get then a historical parallelism comes in mind.
Seven decades ago a european nation put it self in harms way due to criminal imperialistic acts but when the dust came down the winners erased the enormous debt of the defeated and gave them a fair chance to rise again.
This nation now is pointing the finger and is moralising about paying debts.
As I have said before "you're a jerk too" isn't a defence. The hypocrisy of Germany has no bearing on whether or not Greece created their own unsustainable situation (which they clearly did - after all, how long can you live by simply spending other people's money?).
Ok but in this case we see one of the jerks get away debt-free and without giving any war compensations and we have the other jerk that now must pay "every last euro" of a debt that a very large part is odious and the outcome of the bad strategy of troica.
And exuse me but I work 12 - 16 hours a day and I have never spend other's people money, most of the loans ended in fat swiss accounts and, the EU if it can find switcherland on the map it will find enough billions.
Sure Greece needs reform, sure it has problem with oligarchy, the same oligarchy that european elit make bussiness many decades now, sure there is a level of corruption that many german companies fed for very long time, but here we have a situation of economical strangulation and looting of greek public property.
I added "It's sad for the minority that didn't want this situation and didn't live with their head burried in the sand." to cover the people in Greece that aren't simply living off the government payroll.
BTW, I wouldn't mind reading something on what you're saying about the loans being fed to corrupted organizations and basically stolen.
Thanks
And, BTW, on the facts:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-15/why-greek-pensions-have-become-...
To quote: "Why insist on pensions? Pensions and wages account for about 75% of primary spending; the other 25% have already been cut to the bone. "
As Disraeli said " there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.
You are not looking the 75% from the correct view. First the 75 % is pensions AND public sector wages, the pensions are close to 30% from 11,7% that was during 2007, so what happened? Greek pensioners tripled the last 7 years? No the number of pentioners are about the same and the average pension is quite reducted, so what we haven't looked? The Greek GDP that has dropped 25% during the crisis as the result of bad troica strategies. Other consequences of that failed strategies were 25% of unemploement, and the massive wave of closing bussinesses in the private sector. Many of those middleclass bussinessmen tha survived till now forced to stop paying social security contributions for their workers because they just couldn't.
So we have smaller GDP, large rise of unemployment and working with unpaid pension contributions, so there is the whole picture of this outrageous percent.
Ofcource I am not claiming that there aren't many serious problems with public sector and there is a strong critisism to the new goverment, but to deside to punish and codemn a whole nation for these problems is a bit steep.
If europeans wanted to help against corruption they would like in example could stop harboring wanted bail jumbers that are involved in seimens scandal.
> You are not looking the 75% from the correct view. First the 75 %
> is pensions AND public sector wages
That's exactly what I said: "75% of government expenditures on payments to government employees (50% of THAT going to pensions)."
> the pensions are close to 30%
Yes. 75% of gov expenditures is "pensions AND public sector wages." 30% of government expenditures is pensions. 30%/75% = 0.4 - pardon me for rounding to 1/2. If that's all you're correcting me on then "correction accepted."
If I could edit the original comment I'd make it "(40% of THAT going to pensions)" instead of 50%, and credit you with the correction. Unfortunately, since it's been responded to I can't edit it so this will have to do.
Oh come on now,
you totally ignore the essence of my post and you are trying make impressions juggling with numbers.
I am saying one more time that the outrageous 75% that everyone tries to make an cheap impression with is the outcome of the failed policies of the troica, the drop of GDP, high unemployment, closing of bussinesses, working people with very low wages being unable to contribute to social security, looting of the insurance funds with the PSI and enough others that prove the failure of the absurd troika's austerity program.
The fellow europeans and the IMF managed to take Greek debt from 130% and catapelt it to 170% just to save private gambling banks.
The IMF itself admitted the big mistakes of their program but they keep trying to force more austerity measures in an already tired nation.
In international law provides protection from odious debt.
Sorry. I'm simply defending the fact that I didn't make those numbers up (as some claimed) and I did interpret them correctly.
You may be right about the reasons for the numbers - and I did ask for something to read on the subject. I didn't, and still don't, feel the need to contradict your reasoning there. Partially because I think it's besides the point; when 75% of government expenditures, for whatever reason, is essentially transfer payments to maintain socialist benefits, austerity will come, one way or another.
EDIT: Oh, and if it wasn't obvious, I should have added - and partially because, as I said, you could be right.
I don't think it's fair to leave out the reason of a given situation and focus just on an isolated link from a chain of events just to draw a specific conclusion that agrees with the leading opinion of the majority western media.
You are advocating that 75% of government expenditures to socialist benefits causes austerity, well yes austerity tends to create more austerity so instead of adding some extra austerity like the creditors demand, how about the troica help Greece to create more jobs and achieve GDP growth to bring that percentage down so we can avoid starve old pensioners. How nice would that be, but I doubt Merkel agree cause german companies like seimens would have much to loose from the privatisation looting party that was going on.
If you really like to read something on the subject, you can start with this, if you haven't read it already
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324299104578527202781667088
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-22791248
Thanks. I'll definitely read them.
EDIT: Ugh. The WSJ article is behind a paywall. I'm not a subscriber.
No problem.
I am not a subcriber either and I can read it, strange.
But I have other links on the subject
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6924ee76-cdfb-11e2-8313-00144feab7de.html
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jun/05/imf-admit-mistakes-greek...
Larry Summers, the bloated toad that helped ruin the US economy via the Clinton admin?
Yup. As well as with Obama (since he was an advisor and in line for Treasure Secretary). Someone with an already socialist bent said the socialism of Greece is unsustainable. That was the point of saying "*EVEN* Larry Summers ..."
sorry, it came across as (perhaps) even the "exalted" Larry Summers says.....
Sorry. Not meant that way at all. I'm definitely not a fan.
Only 75%? Since we're pulling numbers out of our ass (which incidentally for you is also where your brain resides), I say 3,678%.
Hey Douche. Granted, fact checking isn't really you're strongest suite. You know you wrote that AFTER I posted the link to the source, right?
EDIT: Here's more from Blanchard:
"Pension expenditures account for over 16% of GDP, and transfers from the budget to the pension system are close to 10% of GDP" (http://blog-imfdirect.imf.org/2015/06/14/greece-a-credible-deal-will-req...)
Let me know when you get your foot out of your mouth so I'll know to look for a reply.
Slavery provides security without responsibility.
And an existence of living in a grave with both ends open.
Funny how nobody worried about their pants being around their ankles when they sold all those bonds.
Retire at 50...Fuck yeah. No problem. Plenty of money.
Retard borrowers and retard lenders deserve exactly what they get.
Fucked.
Too bad it's the guy without that sweet govt. job that gets it in the ass.
Next week Amerikans will celebrate their Independence and Freedom by signing onto another Trade Treaty that they are not allowed to read for another four years.
And we laugh at Greece.
Talk about....lol
We can laugh.
Because we can print and they can't.
Which will last until somebody decides they want to trade some paper for something of real value.
Wait until you see Wonder Bread bags with Chinese or Arabic writing on them.
Then we won't be laughing too much.
Except for the Halal Spam.
politicians cause the problems then try to blame everybody else but themselves.
Who is a worse crook. One who borrows and mismanages the funds, or one who fully aware of the borrower´s default, still tries to endorse him to borrow more.
So is Tsipras not on Greek TV at least twice a week telling his population what is going on? If they elected him thinking he was going to keep them in the Eurozone it would seem he is obligated to inform that the situation is looking to become "one way or the other, but not both".
Want dignity ? Dont borrow.
The missing link in the Greek debacle is the ushering in of technocracy.
That is why the Greek taxpayers now have their tax bills attached to their electricity bills.
The new currency will be units of energy that use no cash. Total surveillance through smart phones, smart meters, and ICLEI Agenda 21 local sustainable development groups that invent laws to take your property.
Check out Patrick Wood, "Theocracy Rising" on youtube or Amazon.
“There is no option on or off the table that would allow… the people of Greece [or America, or any other nation] to not be debt slaves for the rest of [their] lives.”
Altho given as a suggested statement for Tsipras, it is also a fact of reality for all people of the earth.
For those who want to add this option, there is only one historically-proven method by which it may be done: it is derived from lessons of American Founders, and their ideological predecessors: the “rebels” of Athens (year minus 509) and rebels of England (1620-50)… so rarely have men risen from their knees.
American Founders expressed it adequately, ‘When government become destructive of our rights, it is our right – nay, it is our duty – to abolish or alter such government and set new guards for our rights.’ (Approximate quote.)
I suggest that we not even consider an alteration of such governments; they should be abolished, which would automatically repudiate related debts – that is, money lent to criminal and useless classes while productive and thrifty classes are held liable for such debts.
And then we should conduct investigations as to who received such plunder, recover it, and return it to those from whom it was stolen.
So much for what should be done.
Now, the hardest question of all, “How is it to be done?”
As indicated, we must study lessons laid down by those rebels mentioned above. (One and Two)