Greece and the US: Getting Others to Pay Your Bills … Not Courageous, Not Democratic

POLITICS OF DEBT - As the world now celebrates, mourns, or just watches in fascination as the Greek nation -- considered by historians to be the birthplace of democracy -- shucks off its foreign creditors, it's hard not to wonder if those of us in the City of the Angels and in the Golden State are much better off than Greece. 

Soon, the Greeks will learn, along with those of us in "the home of the free and the brave," what it means to pay off their own bills. The observations about the "Greek lifestyle" that includes early retirement and short/inefficient/unproductive workweeks, as well as an oppressive hold that cruel banks have over a nation that has become more austere over the past few years, are probably ignored at our collective peril. 

Greece’s problems hit home here in the US, in the state of California, and in the City of Los Angeles, because high productivity and self-centered sloth, as well as the need to be fiscally prudent and free from predatory creditors, all exist within our times. We just celebrated Independence Day -- but how "free" are we if our nation is trillions in debt to foreign creditors, particularly Communist China?  Really?  China, of all places, owning a hunk of our debt and associated national resources! 

So who's to blame for the Greek situation?  And who's to blame for our own situation in the US? The banks and foreign creditors? Maybe. The Greek and American peoples? Maybe. Probably a combination of both and neither. Certainly getting "others" (those anonymous and evil rich people, wherever they may be, and whoever they are) to pay off our debts and desires isn't very brave or democratic. And neither is the habit of having everyone work hard for our collective benefit. Nothing is as brave or democratic as paying our own bills and not foisting them on our children and grandchildren. 

Pay as you go. Clean up after yourself. That sort of thing. 

It's politically convenient to blame the "other" political party for spending other people's money, but an intellectually and morally honest approach probably lays the blame on both political parties. The Republican-controlled Congress of the G.W. Bush era could have, and should have, raised taxes to pay for everything from foreign conflicts to Medicare Part D. But that would have been politically inconvenient. 

The Democratic-controlled Congress of the initial years of the Obama Administration, and President Obama himself, should have had the decency to proclaim the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as constitutional only because Congress had the right to raise taxes...and that's what President Obama's legal team stated to the Supreme Court after years of denying to the American people that the ACA was a tax hike.  

But, as with the necessary tax hike for the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, Medicare Part D, or the ACA, raising taxes would be politically inconvenient. Closer to home, tens of millions of Californians are ignoring the state's pension crisis, "whatever that is”…despite the fact that raising the issue would force so many of us to ignore our video games and reality TV long enough to confront an issue that prevents us from spending money on our roads, rail, water, sewage and other infrastructure, or building the 5-10, new UC and Cal State universities to keep up with our educational needs. 

Even closer to home, taxpaying LA residents are beginning to wake up from their stupor and realize that after decades of paying taxes for their sidewalks, that they'll have to pay for them...again.  And, perhaps, again and again and again.  

Because the money we paid for our sidewalks (and roads, alleys, parks, schools, etc.) went to silly spending and public sector sweetheart pension deals negotiated circa 1995-2010 to allow a few of us to retire in our early to mid-50's while the rest of us will never retire, and work until we break down or drop dead altogether. 

Meanwhile, those who scream about the national debt, the California or Los Angeles pension crises, or any other unsustainable fiscal spending practices, are being informed that WE are the problem. 

Just shut up. Nothing to see here. Move along. 

And that whole "taxation without representation" thing? Complain about it, and you're a tea-bagger. By the way, you DO know what that derogatory term references, right?  Demeaning and discrediting the opposition -- even when they mean well, and speaking the truth -- as crazy and delusional, or even criminal as it sounds -- isn't anything new.  For those of you who remember the book "1984," by George Orwell, (which led to coining the term "Orwellian",) it's safe to say that ol' George Orwell knew what he was talking about...although he was trying to warn modern society NOT to create a "1984" reality.

But Orwell wrote "1984" in the year 1949, and was trying to prevent a future that's referencing a year that's come and gone. And speaking of "ol' George"... 

Maybe ol' King George III of England is laughing at us beyond the grave, knowing that his way of operating by fiat is what America, and those original democratic folks in Greece finally chose after all. Because a lack of proactive austerity is NOTHING compared to the reactive austerity that will occur when the "evil rich" creditors withhold their lending and support. Greece will have to learn what running its own finances really means. So will the United States, and any of its states and cities. The real pain and ugliness has yet to arrive...but it's inevitably coming. 

As the expression goes, "freedom isn't free.” Whether it's paying higher taxes to address our current needs, or not approving desired projects or programs because there just isn't enough money, democracy is not for the cowardly, weak or faint-of-heart. And democracy is not for people who refuse to listen to anything they don't want to hear. That is, if they want to stay democratic, because mega-austerity, and reactive austerity, lead to anything BUT democracy. 

Ask anyone who's studied the Weimar Republic, pre-Nazi Germany, about what mega-austerity and horrific fiscal pain leads to. So...starting with Greece, and moving on to our own democratic nation, let's see what being "the home of the free and the brave" really means, shall we?

 

(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at  [email protected]   He also does regular commentary on the Mark Isler Radio Show on AM 870, and co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)

-cw

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 56

Pub: July 10, 2015