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The Global War On Pensions Gets Personal - Scenes From A Dying Nation
We have been warning about the 'global war on pensioners' for a while (most recently here, here, and here) but the soul-destroying images of Greek pensioners' hopes being crushed bring that central-bank-driven repression front-and-center...
As The Wall Street Journal reports, fear is growing in Greece as the decisive hour nears for the nation...
Greek banks will likely run out of cash by the end of the week, two senior Greek bankers said.
“Not all banks will run out of cash at once,” one of the bankers said, “but they’ll all be out within hours of each other.”
...
Shortages of medications are beginning to bite, compounding distress especially among older Greeks.
Parents of babies and young children are stocking up on formula and other basic medications, pharmacists say.
“In some cases, we have shortages because people are freaking out panic-buying. We’re trying to advise them against that,” said Mando Nikolopoulou, a pharmacist.
“We’re seeing significant shortages in heart and blood-pressure medications, but I’m less worried about that because there are Greek-made generics that people can turn to when the branded ones run out for good,” she said. “But insulin, that’s critical—diabetics need it to survive, and we’re really low on stocks.”
...
Yiannis Konstantinidis, a 74-year-old grandfather to two little girls, refused to join the queue, even though he could have done with an extra €60 ($66)—the maximum daily withdrawal amount under capital-control rules.
“I brought the kids to have a bit of fun, to buy them ice cream,” he said as 6-year-old Chryssa pulled on his hand. “They may be young but they know something’s wrong. The television is playing at home all day, there are people lining up at the banks, they’re asking me ‘what’s happening, Grandpa?’”
“I just want Tsipras to get a deal, any deal, but it looks like the Europeans are fed up with us now,” Mr. Konstantinidis said, adding he had voted with the minority of Greeks who backed the creditors’ proposals, which he believed would secure the country’s euro membership despite hitting pensioners like himself hard.
Scenes from a dying nation...
All mainstream news is painting the Greeks as the bad guys and the Troika as the savior of Europe. Quite frankly, it is really disgusting. Pictures of an elderly Greek pensioner have gone viral depicting what the Troika is deliberately doing to the Greek people trying to punish them for their own failed design of the Euro in a system that is just economically unsustainable.
[The images above] expose the core of the issue of how ordinary Greeks are being tormented by EU politicians who pretend to care about people. This is not a Greek debt crisis, this is a Euro Crisis and they refuse to admit that what they designed was solely for the takeover of Europe at the cost of the future of everyone from pensioners to the youth.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. We are facing terrible times ahead because socialism is completely collapsing. Government employees have lined their pockets and this is precisely the end game how Rome collapsed. It was not the barbarians at the gate. It was the the Roman army was not paid and they began hailing their various generals as emperor and the attacked cities who did not support their choice sacking their own people. Only after weakening themselves, then the barbarians came in for easy pickings. If Russia really wants to take Europe, all they have to do is be patient. They will self-destruct for the Troika cannot see any change in thinking for that means they must admit that they were wrong from the outset.
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THE PREDATORS WILL DESTROY EVERYONE.
They will succeed, because nobody fights back.
They might fight back if there were real credible leadership with a real workable plan but apparently there's none. None here either.
The predators make sure no credible leadership can become part of their system.
When humans require a leader, they are already doomed.
Of course I and, hopefully you, feel bad for these people, but come on! They wanted everything and then some... Early retirement, less hours worked in a week with maximum pay and pensions. Ladies and gentlemen, that's not how the world works and why liberalism, sociaism and communism doesn't work. He'll, what is their economy... Tourism? They produce nothing the world needs and now people are playing the "they're strategically located so we need them" card, bullshit. If they didn't see this coming its their fault, period. Italy, Spain, Portugal and France are next followed by the UK and the US so get used to it. Deficits matter, sorry. Don't blame Goldman, banks or the creditors either, even though anyone loaning Greece money with their history of defaulting is a moron. This was 6 years in the open and, what 2 decades in the making? This is line showing pictures of starving kids when a drought hits the desert.... Duh, its the desert for Christ's sake. The ones suffering do have my sympathy to a point, but seriously how could they not know? What's the excuse, I didn't understand I couldn't have everything? Enough and don't be surprised when this happens again over there and in the US... You've been warned for years but you believe the politicians who say deficits don't matter... Up next, free college, hey, why not?!
TOUGH parenting AFTER the spoiled child, in a brat-screaming cry for more Cheerios, is CRAPPY parenting. Just what in the hell did anyone expect? We have the very same thing beginning in America.
No country can afford to pay for anything when the top .1% evade taxes.
Look at the extreme wealth inequality. The poor and middle class are being robbed 100 different ways. Absent the theft, we could pay for the necessities of life with four hours per month from an average salary. Do you have any idea how extensive the theft is?
1. Deficit spending, and the Cantillion effect.
2. Extremely low cost, clean energy, which (since the cost of energy is embedded in everything we produce) would have reduced the cost of everything we produce from food to housing by 95%.
The impact of these over the last 100 years amount to $Trillions.
Argentina 2001.
These people are waiting to get $66 from their bank in cash. They are thirsty and fainting. I am assuming that they don't have debit or credit cards. Things are bad for the Greeks, but the article is not describing the scenario.
Our new Pope does not have his tongue in his pocket nor his head drowning in the clouds of dogma :
Unbridled Capitalism : The DUNG of the DEVIL.
You Tea Party Unicorns who believe in Anarchical Casino Capitalism have been warned.
Free Markets "Bitchezz"...hahaha; free for whom? -- "No, No, No, This is not capitalism this is central planning."
Play on deniability! When Rockafella and JPM become "central planners" that'll be day that DUNG of the devil becomes fertilizer! In the meantime enjoy what Casino Capitalism spawns worldwide.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/10/poor-must-change-new-coloni...
Has the servant of the servants of Christ cast out the DUNG of the DEVIL from his own house by liquidated the Institute for the Works of Religion? Thought not.
"You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don't believe and who don't seek the faith. I start by saying—and this is the fundamental thing—that God's mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience. Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience."
If that's true, what do we need a pope (or even a church) for?
Are you a questioning Catholic? Popes come and go. As far as church, that's between you and god. Fellowship of believers is church. In a basement, parking lot, roof top etc. Even one on one.
I'm not a Catholic at all, anymore. Popes do come and go, but this is the one we have now, and it's a questionable endeavor to believe in someone who appears to be undermine the foundations of the organization he's supposed to leading.
Popularity contests...best liar wins.
None of the money is reaching the Greek peons.
All to the Banksters
I agree with some of the comments that it is not only the bansters. It is also the corrupt and most importantly incompetent/stupit politicians, which were elected by a bunch of idiots - being in majority.
The ratio 20/80 (20 intelligent to 80 stupid) does not work anymore. Like any other natural law it is not linear and the stupid has a much larger weight.
Why Greeks still want to be in EU Shengen. They are europeans anyway. They can travel. If they have money they can open business anywhere in EU.
Why merkel still has a job? despite hurting German economy by setting sanctions against RF
Why French have elected a Socialist cretin?
Why the Maoist Barosso was for 10 years at the helm of EU, etc, etc, etc
There are so many whys, which in the first place they happened because of the people agreeing for or their 2 neurons could not advice them better.
Another one: Why complacency of EU people with TPP, when they know this is really bad?
It looks that now the 20/80 is more like 0,016/99,984. Dumb and Dumber, Idiocracy
The banksters are there because they are alowed to be. The same for politicians
We reached here and now not by accident. it was the most probable outcome.
And for the West. What one can expect? Because of them the constantinopole fell to turks. Their stupid politics and narrow mindness (just because the orthdox made the cross from right to left). A previous crusade wiped out the Bizantine empire to set up the west Latin empire - just forgot what they were there for. Just hors!
The history repeats itself. the west was not there to help Bizantium other than to collapse it. The west of today would give more loans to help collapse the descendants of Bizantium
For the pensioners of Greece you have my sympathy, you belonged to a age whereby propaganda and corrupt politicians fed you lies and hoodwinked you into believing the Government cares for you and will look after you in your golden years… You were good citizens and did as you were told and obliged to do. You were not to know you were being lied to. But now you feel the pain of a system who never cared for you and had little or no intention of ever looking after you.
www.teamramgold.com for the most competitive small weight gold bullion on the net
Yes, take your 66 bucks and buy a flake of gold you will feel much better.
Better a still born than deal with a evil flesh world.
It’s not a “War on Pensions” it’s a “Reckoning for poor stewardship”.
NWO? no doubt we are witnessing the power struggle for what shape this NWO will take. Greece is the canary in the coal mine. Fact is by sleight of hand, (TKU GS) Greece got into the EU and immediately did what many would: milked the cow.
the best 'milkers' via political patronage, were re-elected in Greece time and again. the problem was it was thru deficit and debt. unsustainable and now the milk (and German patience) has run out.
the days of reckoning are upon us. if i may paraphrase, ask not what your fellow man can do for you but what you can do for your fellow man (after taking care of your family first, of course). If you're not useful, you may not be useless but you're a load someone has to carry.
Stiglitz, Lew, USA in general telling Euro's to bail out Greece is NOT the answer. When will we ever learn to MOOFB? Be useful, get productive, and for goodness sake, LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS. (that means off w/ the telly, gaming, SM etc.)
Greece is nothing, imagine Florida when the pension checks stop.
It is really past time to arrest government and banking criminals responsible for this crime.
Grimaldus
Imagine Merca when the toilet paper "global reserve" dollah gets flushed out of the Ponzi sewer of the global e con oh me!
it is time you little lambs join the rest of the herd in the slaughterhouse
there is no escaping this centrally planned bankster owened world
you, your kids, grandkids and their great-grandkids will work like slaves to pay your unpayable debt
Sad. You can't blame the old people for voting yes, just look at them. What are they supposed to do? Not that voting yes would've helped, i'm just saying. Shame on the EU and IMF!!!
Those will be future pictures of people in the US someday. Yes, trust your gov't to take care of you.
And now, Greece has asked for 59B more gruel from the EU taskmasters, in return, they promise to raise taxes (on a populace that doesn't pay taxes) and cut pensions.
Time to die, old folks, you've outlived your usefulness to the Syriza. (And they believed the socialists)
Every pension, in every country, is at risk if your "country" has a debt.
Kinda like the TEA PARTY pissing down your back and telling you it's raining.
Into the wood chipper with the lot of ya.<sarcon
The saddest part is that real solutions always existed for these problems. The people at the top whose insatiable greed now shows its ugly head, is a dominant system that's firmly planted and will continue, due to human weakness and acceptance of corruption by the masses. The loss of morality and will of the people to enforce good and justice has crumbled. The solution to the banks in the US is Glass-Steagall, and the banks need to be back to Alexander Hamilton's original idea of structure as a credit system. There should not be central banks, or a Fed, as the concentration of power will always lead to abuse. A sound banking structure has been laid out by Ellen Brown, whose ideas of a sound banking system would certainly work, and protect the people's money. Will we ever get there? History shows we won't. I'll show you a simple way you can prove it to yourself: Go on youtube and search "economic collapse". You get a list of videos in the catagory after playing any one choice, and in that list it shows the number of views of each video. Now search "Beyonce". Check the number of views in the list produced. Now you know what's important out there to the masses. There's all the proof you need to see why this won't get fixed anytime soon. Prepare yourself.
http://ocw.usu.edu/university-studies/u-s-institutions/comparison-of-constitution-and-articles-of-confederation.html Solution is obvious.
Greece is a FAILED STATE because it is a FAILED CULTURE AND FAILED SOCIETY.
It has been this way for many, many generations - NOT just since fraudulently joining the EZ.
Corruption is rampant and embedded in the Greek genetic structure - you must bribe everyone in government to get them to do their jobs, eg to issue permits or to sign off on inspections - the government IN Greece is the primary oppressor of the Greeks who want to strive and achieve and be self-sufficient and properous - NOT the governments outside Greece or the banks.
The culture and society in Greece has ALWAYS regarded "government" as ultimate multi-nippled tity that you live off of in many ways, including:
1. source of HUGE number of do-nothing-useful overpaid patronage jobs with plush benefits, mostly oppressing and skimming from entrepreneurs
2. opportunity to extract bribes for anything and everything from non-government victims, especially entrepreneurs
3. steal money, property and services from the public funds, eg diverting the contractors working on a government construction job to building a personal swimming pool on a government stooge's private property
Greece has a HUGE number and percentage of communists and socialists, not just lurking in the fringes, but IN government, from the local level to the national level - Greeks do not just tolerate these parasites and thieves - they actively support them and elect them to office because Greeks STRONGLY believe in and support communist and socialist ideology.
Therefore Greeks deserve to suffer for their immorality, corruption, incompetence, degeneracy, and stupidity. This is justice long delayed. Let it be a good example and warning to all the socialist scum elsewhere in the world.
How is this significantly different from the USA?
Only 1 way - the Greeks are about 200 years ahead of the USA in decadence, corruption and decline. USA under the obomination is racing to catch up to the Greeks.
The ABOMINATION that stands in the hallowed hall
(parliament ) of democracy.
Its only job is to take the entire humanity to burning hell
Americans don't bribe, they lobby.
Amen.
Where there's life there's hope of course. After 15 years learning how to live within their means in the school of hard knocks, maybe Greece will qualify for Eurasian Union membership on its merits, not a German schoolboy's dreams of what he believes Greece to be.
Till then, the Greeks can burn in the hell of their own making.
Not simple "dying." A slow "suicide" that started a century ago.
My heart bleeds.
Repudiate the pensions. All of them. 16 percent of GDP saved in one go. The care of the elderly who truly are no longer able to work---and many of these "pensioners" are barely 50---is the responsibility of their own children, not somebody else's.
Oh, what, they didn't have any? Well, Greece has plenty of cliffs that when you hit the ground you won't feel it. Maybe some money can be found to pay people to give the old farts a bloody good shove, if they're truly past jumping.
The ones that are still hale can quit whining and go back to work, full time.
Good Lord. Where are those death panels when you really need them?
I don't agree that it's childrens' responsibility but I do about the enslavement of the fewer and fewer in support of those whose numbers are becoming more and more!
It's the responsibility of every worker to create their own retirement nest eggs while they're working. But of course that means making different decisions than most people make. Unfortunately right now the system doesn't allow those who would like to stop receiving SS to opt out and stop paying into SS throughout their retirement years.
The system makes it impossible to save for retirement.
Inflation steals it away by the time you need it.
These people need to be taken care of, period. If there are no children I would reluctantly agree that having a small pool of total strangers do the job is not a fair answer either. It is the government that got us into this mess, and they need to get us out. Why not fire 100% of those useless government workers, double tap them, and give all their assets, and their jobs and paychecks to the pensioners? They could *hardly* do a worse job than their predecessors.
wow, just wow...
is that the retirement plan you have for your parents? - throw them off a fuckin cliff? What about you, when your funny money disappears and you can no longer work? Are you going to pay someone to throw you off, or will it be a different story then? - You are different right?
These people were promised pensions as part of their compensation package, thus they agreed to trade their time (the most valuable thing any of us possess) for x,y,z compensation which included a pension. So under basic contract law they are entitled to that which they contracted for. If the contract can no longer be performed by their employer, then give them back their time....- oh, you can't? Them give them their fucking money!
I cant think of any one word that describes you better; what a *cunt* you are.
Don't these people have rifles? When the govt has pushed you into a corner "rifles" is always the answer.
This will be the Millenials revenge on the Boomers. The U.S. has been under inflating Social Security raises for years - but any temporary can-kicking debt solution in the US is going to hit retirees hard.
...um, when's that going to happen? We don't need it but can't stop it from coming. When recipients can opt out of the system and also stop paying in, then we'll be getting somewhere. We're "receiving" but paying in more than we get... i.e. paying for ppl who never paid in and perhaps naver worked in the US...? And who don't live in the US now?
After pension cuts civil war will follow, Greece WILL fall into chaos and the country will be detroyed from within.
We have some very bright people blaming one faction or the other for systemic collapse. Whatever ism you tag will wind up being the scapegoat and in the aftermath many innocent heads will roll. The welfare state was a construct that grew out of an exponential growth model. This model held true because it was sustained by the reality until 1970. Politicians, bankers and hawkers of various and sundry investments used this model to sell their various schemes to a more than willing public.
Unfortunately, this model broke down the centuries old familial model and substituted the welfare state. Many of us, me included subscribed to the mime that social security and pension funds will always be there. It held true for my parents who were the Great Depression WW II generation but it is not holding true for us. Those that relied on the city pensions in Detroit suffered a similar fate to what is currently playing out in Greece. What is happening on the periphery will in time migrate to the core.
The bottom line is that we are now facing exponential contraction that will at some point result in systemic collapse. Unfortunately the old, of whom I am one, tend to go first along with the very young. In time, as this unwinds, many in the middle will follow. Expect populations to drop below 19th century levels.
The sad truth is there is no political solution to this. Expect tribalism, ethnic cleansing and genocide.
But not "corporatism"...the real "ism" this all is...few dare speak its name.
Better start the soup lines. Those folks look like they are in serious trouble. The socialists made promises they couldn't keep. Now the people who believed those promises are screwed. We are going to be seeing a lot more of these scenes across the world as we enter the great depression 2. The socialist won't see the error of their ways though. They will just ask for more socialism until every bit of wealth and capital are stolen.
"but it looks like the Europeans are fed up with us now,” Mr. Konstantinidis said"
So maybe part of the problem is Greeks don't even consider themselves to be Europeans.
Only Goldman did.
Fuck "Deutschland Uber Alles" Fourth Reich—the European Union.
Germans lecturing about the sanctity of paying for ones debts is the ultimate hypocrisy!
If anyone thinks that pensions in the west will ever be paid out, be they Federal, municipal or private. Ah ha ha ha.
This is SO fucked up. Politicians, bankers, anyone even remotely responsible for this should have their assets stripped, and then moved to their new homes, swinging from a lamp post
A RIDICULOUS statement from Martin Armstrong that blames "socialism."
I REPEAT:
I dislike the use the label "socialism" in ways that have nothing to do with either the dictionary definition, nor the social facts. However, I can understand the ulterior reasons for such deliberate misrepresentations. The label "socialism" is routinely repeated on Zero Hedge in ways that have nothing to do with its dictionary definition, nor the social facts. However, that never makes any difference to those who continue to spout that bullshit anyway, because they continue to have their own agenda for doing so.
What people seem to be calling "socialism" are mostly the relatively superficial ways that the governments appear to be redistributing what is produced to those who do not apparently produce. However, those who focus upon the poorer people who benefit from that tend to deliberately ignore the more significant ways that the richest are much more massively subsidized by the governments than the poorest are!
That kind of "socialism" is NOT based on social ownership of the means of production, which are overwhelmingly still privately owned. There is NOT co-operative management of the economy, but rather runaway governmental corruptions, proportional more to the funding of the political processes being influenced by the special interests who make the largest financial contributions to the politicians, rather than proportional to the size of the public groups who are more obviously being subsidized by government actions. The systems of debt slavery and warfare based on deceits always orders of magnitude bigger than the welfare systems. Indeed, by far the greater subsidizations done by governments benefit the wealthy, who dominate the funding of politics, than the poor, who play an insignificant role in the funding of the political processes.
There has never been anything remotely like the dictionary definition of "socialism" existing anywhere in Europe. Having the government employ a large percentage of the people, or otherwise having the government redistribute a large amount of income to a large number of people, does NOT fit the dictionary definitions of "socialism," especially since the public "money" supplies have been almost totally privatized, which is way more important, and TOTALLY OPPOSITE TO "SOCIALISM!" Rather, what has actually existed is that the international bankers, as the biggest gangsters, or the banksters, have been dominating all of the political events in Europe for a long time, while advancing their agenda of debt slavery through wars based on deceits.