Citizens outside of Greece, specifically the Germans, are frustrated by the notion that their taxes will be used to pay for what they view as the recklessness or laziness of others. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been very vocal about her stance on the situation. Her position is quite simple – all stakeholders, no matter the country, should be sacrificing or providing resources as all theoretically stand to benefit from propping up the Greeks. If Greece wants to revive its economy and end the dependence on fellow Eurozone countries they will need to do some serious self reflection too. This includes politicians as well as average citizens there.
This makes sense, and reflects how many may feel in the US. We all can understand the want of greater compensation, better pensions or more vacation time. In like fashion, it has to be recognized who is paying the bill for these benefits. Hopefully, discussions in Washington DC will result in long term budgetary reform so that fiscal sanity can be restored here as well as in Europe.
Thoughts and comments are welcome.
Robert M. Bilkie, Jr., CFA