A Hard Rain Is Gonna Fall

"Hamogelo Tou Paidou",
the largest association in Greece
supporting abandoned
and needy children.

There was a terribly tragic story out of Greece today about some impoverished families abandoning their children to aid groups and government institutions. Denials by some Greeks were quick as was blame for the wealthy and the European Union, particularly France and Germany.

I confess that I don’t get it.

Greece is a country that has been in financial difficulty for a very long time and not simply because it was raped by the rich or forced to be a part of the EU. Income tax evasion was a national pastime by all levels of society even as more and more social programs were demanded. The government stupidly accommodated that situation and when it finally started to act, the riots last spring were the result.

Greek protesters clash with
 police in protest over austerity
measures and tax evasion crackdown
photo: sfgate.com

It’s popular mythology in activist circles that those riots were about throwing off oppression but that’s all it is, mythology. The simple truth is that too many in Greece had come to look on not paying their taxes but expecting more from government as an entitlement. Now the bill has come due.

It doesn’t matter much anymore what the root causes are for the current situation, the reality is that it is what it is and there is a hard rain falling over the birthplace of democracy. That storm is spreading as there are still far too many people who just don’t get it.

You can’t live on borrowed money forever. At some point, it has to be repaid and when you can’t afford to repay it, there is going to severe hardship.

Ireland, Spain, Italy and now countries like Hungary are facing storm clouds and the EU is not going to be able to bail out all of them.

There are many blaming many but there is more than enough blame to go around. Greed and an unwarranted sense of entitlement are common in all economic and political groups.

Some blame the right, particularly the rich and demand higher taxes on the wealthy as if that will solve all problems but there isn’t a government anywhere that hasn’t squandered the increased tax revenue it has hauled in on yet more ridiculous programs, bureaucracy and unaffordable entitlements. The rich, like everyone except the very poor, should pay taxes and everyone should demand less from government.

The wealthy, both individuals and corporations need to realign their thinking to understand that they are not entitled to corporate welfare or to treat a nation’s wealth as their own private Monopoly game. They, like everyone else, have a responsibility to contribute beyond merely growing their companies and personal wealth.

Some blame the left and socialist policies and expectations like “free” healthcare and education but nothing is free. Everything is a balancig act. .

At the end of the day, a country’s wealth is its wealth, no more – no less. There is a finite amount of money available no matter how it is collected or earned and that means there is a finite amount of government services and programs that a country can afford. To be sure, an economy can grow and social programs can grow with it but that isn't what has happened. The demand for social programs and entitlements has exceeded available tax revenues and are being financed on borrowed money.

The left needs to realign its thinking and learn to choose between what is essential and what would be nice to have. When children go to bed hungry at night as they do in too many democracies, including those in North America, there is something obscene about worrying about more entitlement programs.

Some blame politicians and with good reason. Politicians have for too long spent beyond the ability of their country to afford, in order to get themselves and their political parties elected.  Politicians need to stop pandering in order to win elections and realize that with public office comes great responsibility. That responsibility includes having vision, providing true leadership and an equitable balance between taxation and programs. It means uniting people behind a common set of goals rather than dividing them. It means being responsible when it comes to handling our common resources be they natural resources or tax money and it means having the courage to say no when unrealistic demands are made on them by any special interest on the right or the left, the 1% or the 99%,

Clinging to the same tired clichés trotted out at every election has done nothing but contribute to the economic and political chaos we are living in today. Politicians need to start putting their countries and the welfare of all citizens ahead of winning elections and obtaining power.

At the end of the day, the responsibility lies with all of us: rich or poor, conservative or liberal, white collar or blue, union member or corporate employer. The country in which we live belongs to us all and we each share a responsibility to the success of that country. Demanding much, while contributing little is the path to ruin. Dividing ourselves into polarized groups is accomplishing nothing except to continuously turn up the heat on the arguments,. Greece and other countries are living that nightmare now. Unless hard and ill-informed attitudes in other countries don’t soon change and accept reality, a hard rain will fall in them soon enough.

The next time you feel like making your cause more important than the reality your country faces, the next time you decide you need to spend more time blaming others rather than uniting with others to talk in an attempt to find common ground, remember what is happening in Greece and in other countries around the world.

Think it couldn’t happen here? Think again. They thought the same thing in Greece not so long ago.

We each need to take our share of the responsibility for where we are today as nations and to attempt to find new ways to come together to address our common issues.  It seems to me that if we are going to clean up this mess we’re in, uniting to do something about that might just be a very good place to start.

For me, it’s a question of priorities. I think we should worry about saving baby seals after we’ve made sure that no child in our community ever goes to bed hungry. To me, to do anything less is insanity.

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