Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
In the case of Spain and Greece...what is the problem over there? Thanks to our power hungry politicians in the U.S. insisting on having an empire with the biggest military in the world....neither Greece nor Spain spends much on military do they?
So if their govt. doesn't spend much on military....then what DO they spend all their money on? Free healthcare? Entitlements?
Every economic analyst that I've seen on the news has said that those countries have simply promised more to people than could have ever been sustained.
Am I misinformed on that?
EDIT: And that doesn't make "the poor" the "cause of govt. collapse". It's the govt. that did it. From what the economic analysts said...the govt. over there has entitlement programs for EVERYONE. So the hard working people get it too (like healthcare and other benefits)
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Actually with Spain, it's not so much the main governments fault. Their debt levels are still now pretty low, its the regional politicians.
Bilbao got a new museum worth millions, so every other damn city wanted one. The small regional banks had the politicians on their boards, so they got lent whatever $$ they wanted to build airports no one needed, 5 lane freeways connecting small towns. just silly stuff.
Regional politicians are the worst of the worst they all think they're gods. (Scotland take note
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I live in small town, yet they blew 12 million euros on an arts and artisan center.
Also Spain got hammered by the European bank. when it was booming Germany/France weren't so interest rates kept coming down, and German money poured into Spain.
They were building 100's of thousands of new houses mainly for northern Europeans as holiday homes, which the government gets around 10% tax on, so big bucks. then suddenly no building, none it stops.
So take away the tax on the buildings plus the tax on the wages of people working in construction, add on the unemployment benefits you now have to pay them and it adds up.
Credit should have been tightened, but when a government cant control interest rates, you're buggered.