Recent events in Greece sound like an implausible Hollywood plot: citizens riot because the government is reducing their welfare. That's not how they see it, of course – but it is an accurate description of what's happening there now...
For over a decade, the Greeks have been living well beyond their income. The government has been borrowing easy money (mainly from other EU members) and using it to fund an amazing panoply of benefits for their citizens. Naturally, the citizens supported these politicians raining money down upon them. In that ten years, the Greeks have become quite thoroughly addicted to these benefits, to the point where they appear to have completely taken leave of their senses. Despite the rather simple math involved (you can't continue to spend $5,000 a month if you only make $3,000 a month!), the Greeks riot to keep up the party. Their unemployment rate is 21% (why work, with such great unemployment benefits?) and over 40% of the entire workforce works for the government. It's a thoroughly socialist state.
There are many parallels in the U.S., though thankfully not (yet) so extreme. Our Social Security system is completely broken and indefensible from any rational perspective, yet it still has overwhelming public support. The biggest fear I have about Obamacare is that once the benefits kick in (starting next year!), it will prove politically impossible to repeal it – that's very much what's happening Greece right now.
Our elections this fall are, I think, our last good chance to steer the U.S. away from the disastrous course that most of Europe is on. By this I mean that it's still politically possible at this point to execute a “course correction”. In four more years, if Obama wins reelection, that will be vastly more difficult to pull off...
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