MAJORITY VOTE FOR BANKRUPTCY
Nov 24th, 2011 by haileyrae
Will Papademos,
former vice-president of the European Central Bank, Greece’s new prime minister,
pay the bills?
The democratic process is generally touted in the western world as the most desirable form of government, but you have to wonder; given the frequency with which countries have been going bankrupt lately, that there might be a better alternative to allowing an ill informed and self absorbed populace determine who should be running things.
The debt and democracy dilemma has us dangling from a whole lot of bull.
Buttonwood suggests a practical answer: “… if you don’t want to be at the mercy of creditors, don’t borrow lots of money from them.” 1
Well, we’d feel warm all over if so many of us weren’t already deep in the hole.
The problem is that there’s little incentive for any party in power to tell the people who put them there, that in order to meet the country’s financial obligations, their taxes have to be raised and their pensions must be cut by 50%.
Greece, high on the list of potential absconders is presently in this position. The Greeks are violently opposed to any change in the status quo that might put them back on the road to solvency and satisfy the IMF 110 billion euro bailout.
China has become banker to the western world and is likely to remain so into the foreseeable future.
Unless the critical mass realizes that debts need to get paid, and unless we elect to meet that end,
the majority vote for bankruptcy will remain the status woe.
Commenting On Another Blog
1Buttonwood’s Notebook.”Reforming Europe: Debt and Democracy”.
The Economist. Sept. 8, 2011.