In Greece, thousands are protesting the government, which is bankrupt and is forced to cut government benefits and to raise taxes in order to survive financially. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100505/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_greece_financial_crisis
Violent protests, to the point that FOUR people died from smoke inhalation inside a bank that had been set afire by protesters, who then obstructed firefighters trying to save the three, which included a pregnant mother (thus, a fourth victim).
How did this all come about? Well, in a nutshell, Greece spent way too much money providing all sorts of benefits for its citizens--so, basically, the Greek people are demanding that their government continue to spend--money it doesn't have--on them.
Could this be the US' future? Well, let's see....
First, our economy is not growing well. Unemployment went up to 9.9%, which despite what the White House is saying, is Not A Good Thing. President Obama is touting the fact that 290,000 jobs were created last month. Unfortunately, most of the jobs are government jobs, including 66,000 temporary census jobs. http://www.gallup.com/poll/127628/Federal-Government-Outpaces-Private-Sector-Job-Creation.aspx
Well, isn't our economy better than that of Greece? Let's see: Greece is having problems because it has a budget deficit of 13% of its Gross Domestic Product, and its national debt is 113% of its GDP.
How does the US stack up to this? Well, last year under President Obama, the budget deficit reached a peacetime high of 9.9%. Under his 2011 budget, the deficit will reach 10.6% of our GDP. Now, our national debt is about 90% of our GDP--under President Obama's leadership, the national debt is projected to rise to 110% of our GDP by 2015.
Not too far from Greece's economic numbers.
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