- Greek Potester Redux

A while back I wrote an open letter to the idiotic Greek protesters who were trying to use rioting as a means of forestalling the return of fiscal reality to their Mediterranean nation. The letter got a little attention (as did the rioting). It was reproduced on hundreds of websites, translated into 6 languages, and was read on the air by a popular afternoon radio talk show host. For a guy who has never even tried to make a penny on this writing stuff, that was fun. It was a really great chance to 'influence the conversation', which is the real reason I go to the trouble.

Now Michael Lewis, An Ex Bond Trader but is now a guy who actually does make a living writing stuff like this, has written a much more comprehensive and readable piece that explains what all the Greek Stuff is about in the first place. Here's one my favorite parts:

The average government job pays almost three times the average private-sector job. The national railroad has annual revenues of 100 million euros against an annual wage bill of 400 million, plus 300 million euros in other expenses. The average state railroad employee earns 65,000 euros a year. Twenty years ago a successful businessman turned minister of finance named Stefanos Manos pointed out that it would be cheaper to put all Greece’s rail passengers into taxicabs: it’s still true.


And then there is this classic describing the chaos in western civilizations' cradle:

Here they are, and here we are: a nation of people looking for anyone to blame but themselves. The Greek public-sector employees assemble themselves into units that resemble army platoons. In the middle of each unit are two or three rows of young men wielding truncheons disguised as flagpoles. Ski masks and gas masks dangle from their belts so that they can still fight after the inevitable tear gas. “The deputy prime minister has told us that they are looking to have at least one death,” a prominent former Greek minister had told me. “They want some blood.” Two months earlier, on May 5, during the first of these protest marches, the mob offered a glimpse of what it was capable of. Seeing people working at a branch of the Marfin Bank, young men hurled Molotov cocktails inside and tossed gasoline on top of the flames, barring the exit. Most of the Marfin Bank’s employees escaped from the roof, but the fire killed three workers, including a young woman four months pregnant. As they died, Greeks in the streets screamed at them that it served them right, for having the audacity to work. The events took place in full view of the Greek police, and yet the police made no arrests.

I know communists are all atheist whose religion is the state, but I'm certain that there is a special ring of hell reserved for people like these.

The rest of the article is here. I highly recommend it.