In order to divert attention away from the economic, moral, and political bankruptcy of Europe’s cradle-to-grave welfare state, some liberals, relying on figures from the Out of Our Ass Institute of Statistics, are tying to claim that Greece’s excessive spending comes from a “bloated defense budget.”
Try again. Greece only spends 5.5% of it’s budget on defense:
Either Europe (and the United States) must reform their runaway, bloated welfare states, or their welfare states will bankrupt their nations.
Tags: Euro, European Debt Crisis, Greece, Welfare State
What was really wrong and bloated and vengeful was the imf/eu designed “rescue plan” that trapped greece into a vicious circle.
I have no doubt that greece doesnt spend too much money on defense. Greece shares borders with unstable and aggressive nations after all (Turkey for instance. Syria is close too).
In general Greece hasn’t commited signifficant economic sins.
Greece has one of the smallest public sector on earth. Yes it is true! OECD statistics:
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/gov_glance-2013-en/images/graphics/g5-01.gif
Greece is more or les healthy in terms of exports. World bank:
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.EXP.GNFS.ZS?page=6
And of course greeks do not retire earlier than other europeans. This is also a blatant lie like the one with the excessive defence expenditutres.
What destroyed greece was the draconian measures imposed, that made economy to contract by almost 30%.
No, Greece was running excessive budget deficits long before the crisis hit. When you have to borrow money to keep spending on your unsustainable welfare state, then your public sector isn’t small enough.
Greece could have taken Estonia’s route and cut outlays to match tax receipts. They chose not to. No deficits would mean no bailouts to make the crisis worse.
Greece’s unwillingness top live within its means is what brought them to he current state. All else is secondary.