Commonsense austerity is Europe's only pathway out of the mess in which it finds itself. And, to some degree, that has been the politic of the larger European Union over the past several years. While European leadership has preached the need for cutting spending and balancing budgets, 11 European leaders have been "fired" since 2008. This week's defeat of Sarkozy and the elective angst against conservative parties in Greece are not political party statements, as I see it. Instead, the recent political unrest is a statement against "austerity without immediate results."
Is such even possible? Of course not. And therein is the overwhelming problem. Meeting budget constraints and living "within one's means" is the only path to a nation's health, over the long haul. Food diets only work when they become a systematic part of the daily routine. So too, is the case for austerity. A nation does not get to try austerity, see if pulls that country back from the abyss and then, a balls to the wall (we are talking dodge ball, folks) return to the same habits that created the problem to start with. Merkel (German's Prime Minister) and past president Sarkozy's efforts may have proven to be "too little, too late." There is fear in economic circles, in our country, that Europe is slipping back into recession. Spain is already there, having two negative GDP quarters (the 4Q of 2011 and the 1Q of 2012).
The message to us, in the United States, is profoundly clear: now is the time to change our direction. Europe may have waited too long to change things, economically, without a great deal of social unrest -- without long term social unrest, and, if that is not a lesson learned by our politicians, our history will that of Greece and the European Union.
France's new president, the socialist, Francosi Hollande, has voiced his disdain for the financial world, pitching it as his "greatest enemy". He intends to raise taxes on the rich, as if there is enough money in the coffers of the rich to pay for more than a month's worth of Europe's union inspired excesses. He intends to move away from a austere emphasis in financial matters, lower the age of retirement back to 60 years old, and see if that will "work."
Understand that there are two grand societal enemies that command evolving agendas, resulting in national grief for those who tolerate their existence. They are "greed" and pure D "selfishness."
Greed is the bane of free market capitalism and is reason enough for responsible regulatory controls (and "no," I am not including Dodd/Frank but Sarbanes-Oxgley? Ohhh, you betcha). Opposite to free market capitalism is socialism and the unions controlling that political response. Unions never represent "all the people" of any country. No nation can afford the high dollar salaries and benefit packages that unions increase and protect.
The driving force in socialist economic structures is the implicit union motto of "me first," and that is the profound characteristic of "selfishness." There is no other term for the matter. In Greece, public union members are driving that nation into financial collapse, and care nothing about what they are doing. They want "what is theirs" and to hell with the rest of the nation.
We have something similar in this country. Look at the mess into which strong unionized state populations have taken their states: California, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan. Union leaders in those states care nothing for the non-union majorities of each state, nor the financial well-being of their cash-strapped state coffers. And the beat goes on.
Greed on the one hand. Class action selfishness on the other . . . . . . . and if I had to choose, I would pick greed as the lest damaging evil. While greed is not good, selfishness on a broad scale, will take a nation down quicker than any other negative force -- in fact, the negative effects of selfishness are innately destructive, whether to a nation or a family or a church.
I do not think it is too late to learn the lesson, but, for certain, it is too late to transition to a commonsense economic standard without having a fight with the [some] unions and the Marxist Misfits that would usher in a transformative governance featuring "selfishness" as it's causative center.
Make no mistake, "cradle to grave" is all about selfishness.
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