GREEK RIOTS AT PARLIAMENT BUILDING
ATHENS, GREECE, OCTOBER 20, 2011: Being teargassed three times by Athens police, hit with stones by protesters and forced out of my Athens digs because of fire/unbridled violence is not the best way to calmly collect ones thoughts to summarize the implications of what has recently taken place in Greece and it would be classified as an aggravated assault by the police
The last two days of the general strike in Greece has been very difficult for a country which has been facing crises after crises. This week’s showdown was mainly about the government’s desire to obtain the EU bailout by showing the EU that it is on the road to improvement and that it is committed to trimming its bureaucracy which has ballooned out of control.
Suzanne Daley reported in the International Herald Tribune that there has been ”eye-popping” waste and abuse of power by Greece’s bureaucrats – “from officials who hire their wives to managers submitting $ 38,000 bills for office curtains”. Believe it or not, there are too many bureaucrats for the available office space so many workers stay at home collecting salaries/benefits. Because the governments workers are active in the political campaigns, over the years, many people have received patronage appointments. About one in every five workers is employed by the government. Being allowed to retire at young ages, there are now about one million former Greek bureaucrats receiving retirement benefits.
To its credit, in spite of the ugly protests outside Parliament building, the Greek Parliament showed resolve this week by passing legislation to facilitate the reduction of the bureaucracy which should result in significant savings to the government. It is estimated that the bureaucracy could be cut by one third with no material affect on the delivery of services. The real test of these reforms will be in their sustained implementation by the Greek leadership – the jury is still out on this.
Taking the Greek experience and looking at our country, for the last two years state/local governments have experienced increased retirement benefits costs while making painful reductions in their work forces with, probably, more to come.
What about the federal bureaucracy? As with Greece, there have been no big cuts yet; indeed, the federal bureaucracy enjoys a “no firing” policy and has significantly grown along with the cost of sustaining it. What does this mean for the average American nongovernment worker? Basically, we’re screwed.
To pay for the large federal bureaucracy and its retirement/heath care defined benefits, the average American’s standard of living will be on a downward slope with less funds available for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. This decline will also be exacerbated by artificial bureaucratic-imposed low interest rates and increased cost of living expenses due to misguided bureaucratic policies.
As with Greece in the past, America right now does not have the political will or courage to deal with its obvious challenges. And as with Greece, America will reach a tipping point where major reforms in the compensation/retirement benefits of state/federal bureaucracies will be imposed by the realities.
Lets hope America does not let it get to the point where there are street riots and bloodshed which I just experienced in Athens.
