Over promised, under delivered

 

 

"Such a drop dead gorgeous country. Such a rich heritage of history. Such a financial mess..."

Well history was made this weekend. Not here. Not by ISIL. But by Greece. The people of Greece had a referendum and they told the rest of the Euro Zone to "stick it". They are done with austerity measures. No more. In the opinion of many of the Greek people, this was not their fault. They had been sold a bill of goods. In other words, their government had promised more than they could deliver.

Some refer to the southern countries of Europe as PIGS (no insult intended). PIGS would stand for Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. For some reason, the countries of southern Europe seem to struggle financially more than their northern neighbors. As I was watching a financial show this morning, of course Greece was the center of attention. Nobody could even guess what would happen next. One analyst thought the other three countries in PIGS might hurry up and get some financial religion based on what is happening in Greece. But again, nobody knows for sure.

Looking at Greece as a case study is a bit like looking in the mirror. For years their government had over promised and then under delivered. At the end of the day when a government does that long enough, the "unsustainability factor" sets in. Humpty Dumpty falls off the wall. Now the Greek government is broke and has empty promises going out to the horizon. Sound a bit familiar?

Every good party ends with the clean up. Every good drunk ends with the hangover. Every good shopping spree ends with a bill. Greece kept putting off the evitable - the payment for the party. Most knew this day would eventually come. But they were stuck. They only way to pay the piper was to pay for the party which had long been over. People were going to have to accept the fact their government lied to them. They are going to have to live on a whole lot less. Much less than their government promised them. Over promised and then under delivered.

Well our day is coming. Like the people of Greece, we ignore the facts. We listen to the snake oil salesmen in Washington. We shout down truth tellers like the Simpson-Bowles Committee. Rather than fix the current entitlements which are bankrupting us, we add another one - ObamaCare. Yes, the road to Athens is loaded on our GPS, and we are speeding down the highway to financial damnation.

My advice is we pay close attention to how this plays out in Athens. It might be our future. Should we decide in 2016 to elect another Socialist or a Progressive, it will be our future. As all elections have consequences, our next election will have a dozzie.