Jim Crum on the Greek Welfare State: Civic Not Official Corruption Leads to Decline

I wonder how long it will be before we see similar kinds of riots in our more civilly corrupt states like New York, California and Illinois.  Jim Crum writes:

 

I watched with interest the riots going on in Athens and Thessaloniki this morning.  During interviews there were the typical efforts to blame corrupt politicians. Is this correct?  The answer is both yes and no.Official corruption did not lead to this.  Civic corruption did.

 

Apparently, this unavoidable and quite profound irony is lost on thousands of Greeks and nearly every reporter.The welfare state corrupts both the spirit and the soul.   Left in place long enough and the fires of industry will also slowly die out.  

 

The country is financially exhausted due to bloated public unions that run nearly everything from hospitals, to taxis, to cleaning services.  Such unions punished hard work and rewarded poor behavior.  Left unchecked for over a generation, it has led to enormous misallocation of resources that have literally drained the treasury of money and the national psyche of civic virtue.

 

Now the piper has called the tune that no one wishes to dance to.Sadly there seems to be an accepted concept that there is a right to be supported by someone else.  But we are now seeing what happens when socialism “runs out of other people’s money”.  It’s right there on our TV screens, rampaging through the streets of Athens.

 

So far, those rioting and the political liberals seem willfully ignorant of the forces at work.How long will it be until they wake up?