My big fat Greek bonus

I just received a bonus. Not because of the record-high enrollment of freshmen at The King's College expected in the fall but due to the fact that some countries in the European Union are traditionally dominated by parties whose actions (if not rhetoric) are more leftist---and thus likely to be more fiscally irresponsible---than the most leftist of all American administrations. The Greek political elites have exploded their public sector and created a strong culture of entitlement, accumulating debt well above the country's GDP. The bursting of the statist bubble and fears of default have shaken the euro, boosting the purchasing power of my dollars while I'm spending the summer in Bulgaria.

European and American bailouts pretend to protect the interests of their middle classes yet both are designed to save irresponsible lenders and borrowers while perpetuating bankrupt political practices. Both bailouts are meeting with passionate resistance---the Greeks are rioting mostly against the proposed cuts in the government sector while Tea Partiers rock the United States against expected tax hikes. There is a fundamental difference between the two movements---European leftists are spilling blood to force their government to keep spending like there's no tomorrow; those who care for our constitutional liberties in America use lawful means to starve the beast. Both movements should keep in mind that the pain of an austerity program after decades of overspending pales in comparison to the ruinous alternative of inflating away our governments' mega debts.

The fact is that our politicians and central bankers are too easily tempted to push problems caused by our welfare pyramids onto the unborn. Even if we choose to give them a mandate to force our children to pay our bills, let us at least have some economic sense to vote for policies that multiply the number of future taxpayers. We could invite more immigrants into the European Union and the United States, strengthen traditional family values, and lower the cost of adoptions. And how about we do something about the genocide perpetrated against our own people by our own licensed abortionists?