Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Greece Tells Taxman to take Citizens' Money

Greece is apparently getting even more desperate than before, as now the government is trying to pass into law a draconian rule which allows them to steal money from the bank accounts of people they accuse of tax evasion, even if they haven't been proven guilty or convicted of the crime.

What if they are found to be innocent? Supposedly the tax authorities will return it to the falsely accused. Yeah. That'll work great.

How it'll work is tax authorities will be given access to the accounts of the accused and draw the money out of them that is alleged to be owed.

The question is of course where is that money going to be while they await the results of the trial? We all know it'll be long gone. Then the question must be asked of where the Greek government and its tax authorities going to get the money to pay back the people that are acquitted? Since they have no money, it's going to be pretty hard to return what is already spent.

You can easily see where this is all going to go. There will be an endless number of lawsuits filed against the people of Greece as a tool to extract even more money from them. Just enough of them will be legitimate enough to make it look like the actions are justified. But there can be no doubt, if this is put into effect, it will further enrage the population and there will be further unrest and violence.

That's not to say I'm in the corner of the people of Greece, as they allowed themselves to live in a way for a long time that was unsustainable, extracting ridiculous concessions and perks which the small percentage of the productive in the country, Europe, and other parts of the world, got tired of underwriting.

So while the theft of money from people that are not convicted of a crime by the government of Greece is despicable, so is the socialist practices of a country that has been hit right in the face by the fact that socialism hasn't and will never work.

They're also learning the hard way that Keynesianism is dead, and no matter how much money is thrown at a problem, if it isn't able to be paid back by a productive and vibrant free market, it's going to pile up to the point there is no hope of paying it back, no matter how much they whine and cry about the cruelty of austerity. All that's happening is they are learning they actually have to work for their money and compete against others in a global marketplace.

Opposition leader Alexis Tsipras has even called for the equivalent of a Marshall Plan to bail out the country.

The unions continue to implement strike after strike as if that is going to change the circumstances. What is it about there being no money they don't understand? What is it about no one wants to pay for their plush lifestyle any longer? Those days are over and will never come back. One way or the other they will have to deal with it. So will the rest of the world, including America.

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