tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763377479629539589.post6773236898905732197..comments2023-10-11T09:41:19.089+02:00Comments on Philosophical Comment: My Reading of the Greek Public Service Media Close-downChristian Munthehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373442927438898939noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763377479629539589.post-40455820499586017712013-06-19T04:08:50.290+02:002013-06-19T04:08:50.290+02:00Hello Dr. Munthe from the state of Tennessee in th...Hello Dr. Munthe from the state of Tennessee in the United States of America!<br /><br />I have only recently begun reading and studying the phenomena surrounding the European Zone's (aka. "Eurozone") policy of austerity, an economic plan which may well be implemented here according to the recent budgets that have been submitted by both President Barack Obama and the chairman of the House of Representatives Finance Committee, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin. As a conservative-libertarian, I have also been reading materials online from the Ludwig von Mises Institute, with the first article I caught being from Philipp Bagus. He postulates the premise behind the failures of austerity in the Eurozone was not because of it being a faulty economic policy, but because the governments within the cooperative never really implemented it to begin with! Through graphs and data, he lists that if austerity is properly implemented, there would literally be no government deficit, and, in fact, would result quite often in a budget surplus due to the steep slashing of government funding to the point where the amount of taxes collected from the public is greater than what it spends. From the data he listed in both series of about three bar graphs as well as statistical figures, not one single nation-state within the Eurozone endeavored in balancing a budget, much less in creating a surplus; rather, they engaged in yet-further deficit spending, though maybe by a lesser total than they had before.<br /><br />There are several traits consistent with socialism and the politicians who not only subscribe to its principles, but attempt to implement them as public policy. Perhaps the most important trait which fascinates me and the vast majority of others who think as I do is this (and I am sure socialists probably state the very same thing pertaining to us conservative-libertarians with regards to it being a rather broad generalization): You cannot teach a people who have been made dependent upon the government's soup ladle, its public welfare and socialist policies, "new tricks," i.e. -- a leopard never sheds its spots. The governments of Europe are predominantly socialist, which you know to be true as I would imagine the Swedish government is such. If those governments were to suddenly dissolve the welfare state and the practice of socialism as they have for decades known it to have existed, their societies would collapse beneath the weight of its own systematic failures for the lack of ability to be self-reliant on account of the lack of the people's own wits!<br /><br />Such political behaviors -- the phenomena behind the welfare state and socialist politics -- have toppled governments just within the past generation in Europe, albeit those political infrastructures were far more severe. If the Eurozone wishes to make austerity work and work properly, it needs to look at Germany, Iceland, and Latvia, where the practice is succeeding. Having extreme-double digit unemployment while in the meantime direct taxation continues to spiral out of control is no way to keep people working nor creating wealth or opportunity for advancement financially or socially. It will be up to nations like Greece, the nation struggling most with austerity along with Spain, to remedy the situation, whether it chooses to continue with austerity, or go the route for which the new French Socialist government under Francois Hollande is opting by ending the practice altogether.<br /><br />Conservatively-Speakinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08641419027654572366noreply@blogger.com