The Hiller Instinct: Greece Meltdown

And the cuts in salaries and services now needed to bail the government out...

“Only people pay and the politicians do nothing,” one Greek protestor said.

Now here’s a Tea Party protester in Boston saying the very same thing:

“The outrageous spending is putting us in debt and my grandkids are going to be paying it the rest of their lives,” Tom Getherall of Malden said.

What’s happening in Greece could happen here.

And on Wall Street, it’s already happened. Concern about Greece and its problems spreading to Europe helped put the stock market in free fall Thursday.

Yes, the U.S. economy is much bigger than Greece’s. But while Greece’s government spends forty-five percent of all the money its economy produces, we spend thirty-six percent.

Not such a big difference.

And just as labor unions led the labor protests in Greece- by organizing a national strike that closed airports, stopped trains, and paralyzed much of the country. My guess is public employee unions will lead the charge here against any proposed cuts in their benefits.

President Obama recently established a commission to study our debt.

But we already know what it will find: the government must raise taxes and reduce services.

How do you think we’re going to like that?

Probably just as much as they like it in Greece.

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