The fiscal turmoil in Greece is not about fiscal balance. It’s a fight between looters and moochers such as Olga Stefou, who think taxpayers should endlessly subsidize everything, and the shrinking group of productive people who are pulling the wagon and keeping Greece’s economy from total collapse. Not surprisingly, the Greek government has tried to prop up its uncompetitive welfare state by pillaging that group of productive people. But it appears that the kleptocrats may have gone too far and triggered a Tea Party-type revolt. . . . These two stories underscore the message that I’ve been repeating for years. Greece’s problem is not deficits and debt. Red ink and imminent default are bad, but they are symptoms of the real problem of a bloated public sector and the dependency culture created by too much government.”

Americans living in the age of Obama are increasingly familiar with the types of problems that make doing business in Greece very difficult: a myriad of regulations and bureaucracies, strong labor unions, corruption, high cost and risk of being an employer, and poor protection for investors. In the EU Greece is the worst for starting a business in, in the world it ranks 140 out of 180 countries.

And all the barriers to economic development are due to poor governance -- leftist ideologues in power that know nothing of economics, who think the the private sector can be endlessly looted, and who think that social justice requires thousands and thousands of regulations and controls of the economy.

The welfare state model of development, dominated by public unions, onerous regulations, high taxes and the political allocation of capital, has hit the wall. Down that road lies more Greek tragedy.

http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/the-tea-part...