Recommended: The Greek Unions - And Ours

If you have been following the news recently you know that Greek civil servants are fighting police in the streets in their opposition to the austerity measures Greece agreed to in order to have the EU (mainly Germany) bail them out of their imminent bankruptcy. In this regard, Rich Lowry's article in today's New York Post, The Greek Unions - And Ours, is relevant.

Greece is indeed a basket case from decades of mismanagement, of government deceit about the extent of their debt, and at bottom because they have been living well beyond their means for decades. There is a lesson for America here. We too have been living well beyond our means for decades, with a federal government spending far more than it receives in revenue, and covering the deficit by endless borrowing. The Bush administration made this worse, and now the Obama administration is making it much, much worse.

In the end there is no free lunch in life - we Americans too will someday (perhaps sooner than we think) face a Greek crisis, when the markets suddenly decide we can't possibly be good for our debts, and abandon the dollar and Treasury bonds en masse.

There is something of a classic Greek tragedy in our situation. Our fate is staring us in the face plain as day, yet our political system can't find the will to avoid it.