Wednesday, September 29, 2010

They’re All into Greek

Much as Greek protesters opposed austerity of any sort, and in fact wanted MORE benefits, despite the fact that there is no-one left to suck dry to pay for them, protesters will be descending on Brussels demanding to expropriate more from the grandchildren they won’t have:

Tens of thousands of demonstrators poured into Brussels, hoping to swell into a 100,000-strong march on European Union institutions later in the day and reinforce the impact of Spain’s first nationwide strike in eight years.

All the actions sought to protest the budget-slashing, tax-hiking, pension-cutting austerity plans of European governments seeking to control their debt.

In an ironic twist, the march in Brussels comes just as the EU Commission is proposing to punish member states that have run up deficits to fund social programs in a time of high unemployment across the continent. The proposal, backed by Germany, is running into opposition from France, which wants politicians to decide on sanctions, not rigid rules alone.

“It is a bizarre time for the European Commission to be proposing a regime of punishment,” said John Monks, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, which is organizing the Brussels march.

“How is that going to make the situation better? It is going to make it worse,” Monks said in an interview with Associated Press Television News.
A fact rapidly disproved by Germany’s relatively low unemployment rate and the fact that they actually have some GDP growth.

Of course this only happens when you bet your entire future on the government’s social policies.

Elsewhere in the land of Greek wisdom and savoire vivre:

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