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Originally Posted by Slava
This has nothing to do with my personal thoughts or ideology (which aren't as left as you might think). Greece would be in much better shape if they controlled their own fate here. They could either default or print money and keep things rolling. As it stands they're basically stuck in the middle; if they press forward with severe austerity to make their creditors happy then they face rebellion from the citizens, but if they don't the bailout money stops flowing and the country can't meet any obligations.
The right wing in North America is now fond of fear-mongering by telling us that we don't want to become the next Greece. Of course we don't. The fact is that not many of us want to end up where the US was in 2008-2009 either. They got there without the socialist policies and without regulation either.
These kinds of policies are not what leads a country to bankruptcy though. Instead this is penny-wise and pound-foolish. The Harper government would rather spend the money on fancy new jets than it would on an existing program like this. That is the kind of spending that's a problem. Long-term, large cost and maintenance for decades.
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The problems caused in 08 in the US were much different than what happened in Greece, yet their current spending problems as very similar to Greece. The are spending more than they have. Yes, not on social programs but on other programs, mostly military. At the end of the day it is the same problem, spending more than you have. In the US, they can cut military spending fairly easy, in Greece, when you have a society built on expected social programs, not so easy to cut. This is evident in all the riots and government collapses going on.
The last bolded part: This is a type response I see from the left. Why is Harper spending money on jets. Do you know how many hospitals that could build? Do you know how many teacher that could hire? We are going to need new jets, that is a fact. The F-18s were not built to last forever. If we as a country want to defend our social programs and our freedoms we need to have the ability to defend it. I just don't understand why you people cannot see this. But whatever, if you can't see that Canadians are being nickled and dimed to death, well, there is not much I can do. Every extra fee and tax that gets added to our bill always starts with a phrase like what we are talking about. "Why would anyone care, it's only 75 cents per person." At what point, do all the dollars and cents add up to a point where Canadians are tapped out?