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| Source:Commentary Magazine- U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Democratic Socialist, Socialist Republic of Vermont) |
To state the obvious, America is not Greece. Greece, a country of eleven-million people, with an economy somewhere around two-hundred-fifty-million people and yet their central government spends about half of its GDP. Most of that having something to do with the economy, mostly having to do with social welfare programs. Greece, is not a Marxist state, but certainly a social democratic, or even a socialist state, that expects its government to do a lot for them. And people who actually do have jobs there, they are happy to pay for those services and even subsidize people who won’t work. So this idea that they would willing to give up all of their social welfare subsidies, even to save their economy and get bailed out, is foreign to Greeks.
America, is a much different country than Greece. Which shouldn’t be any surprise to anyone, even to Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders and his bid for the White House. We don’t expect government to do practically everything for us, or at least most of us don’t. And when our government goes through tough economic and financial times, most of us are willing to do our fair share to deal with that crisis. The Greeks, tend to see as government services and welfare subsidies as free money from government. And wonder why they should have to cut back on the welfare services that they receive. And perhaps don’t even believe that they are paying for those services.
Had America, not of taken the steps to deal with our Great Recession and debt issues back in 2009 and 2011 when we did, perhaps we are Greece right now, or having similar economic issues. But again, America steps up when we have problems and Americans expect their leaders to make those tough decisions. Because we know that all of those public services that receive come with costs. And they have to be affordable and sustainable and effective, so the people who receive those services get the services that they paid for. Unlike Greece, who sees those services as free and the idea that they should cut back in what they receive from their socialist government as somehow unfair and perhaps even mean-spirited.
