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Business, Greece, and the Culture of Entitlement


Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

The violence spreading across Greece because of the culture of entitlement rampant in the country shows the future of all those countries with socialist tendencies who think they can buy themselves political favor by offering constituents and citizens wages, pensions and benefits that business and the economy can't sustain.

Violence is spreading because the citizens of Greece think they are owed these benefits, even as those benefits bring down the country, and ultimately could bring down the European Union.

It doesn't matter when people are ultimately socialized to think someone owes them these things.

Even in the richest nation in the world the business community of America understands that just in their health-care industry the gross domestic product isn't growing fast enough to keep up with costs there, and it'll eventually cause a train wreck like the one coming in Europe.

When you create the entitlement mentality and culture, the idea that you have to start behaving and spending responsibly is considered an outrage by those receiving the benefit, and to even think they have to cut back in order to receive aid from others not even in their country is considered "savage" by many Greek people.

Incredibly, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is being blamed by a number of analysts for making the crisis in Greece worse because of what they call "foot-dragging" because she didn't rush in and throw money at the problem.

Think of that. Greece breaks the economic rules of their agreement with the European Union and the leader of Germany is blamed for making it worse. That kind of logic, well, isn't logic, and the thinking is tortuous.

The culture of entitlement so blinds those who create it and receive the entitlements, that rage clouds their thinking and response, and idea of austerity is thrown out the window as if it's a dirty word.

The bottom line countries and leaders better learn quickly is there is no way to sustain the culture of entitlement, as businesses aren't able to produce or keep what with what people think is owed them, as it becomes insatiable.

Just look at the response of the people of Greece from having to have cutbacks in what they believe everyone else owes them to see where entitlement leads to. Three people died today in protests, and there will probably be many more before it's over.



Article by Gary B

The views expressed are the subjective opinion of the article's author and not of FinancialAdvisory.com



Tags: entitlement , eu , european union , greek sovereign debt , sovereign debt