One reason most
Greek-Americans will likely vote for Barack Obama – again I might add; most
surveys from 2008 showed more than 60 percent of Greek-Americans voted for
Obama - is the way Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Republicans everywhere compare
the Obama Administration’s spending and economic policies to the current crisis
in the motherland.
“If the President gets
reelected we’ll end up like Greece” they shriek (of course, many of us still
think some things in Greece are worthy of emulation, but that’s another
matter).
But modern Greece should look
like a paradise to Republicans, especially ones like Paul Ryan who idolize Ayn
Rand.
As you know, Rand’s central
philosophy was that enlightened selfishness and hyper individualism was the
best way to build a modern society, and she rejected collective - especially
government - action and programs.
In Rand’s idealized society,
it’s every man for himself. Do not help others; they will eventually crawl
their way out of the mire, or perish (either way, taxes stay low!). Small government, anti-tax Republicans
love her - even though she was an atheist.
So to the modern Republican
Party, ‘Greece’ is shorthand for ‘bad’ and ‘failure’ and Rand is simply
fantastic.
But the current situation in Greece is as much a failure of Ayn Rand-like thinking as it is a failure of an over-leveraged nation state.
In Greece, the political and
economic elites have always operated under Rand’s central principle of every
man for himself.
Consider:
- Wealthy Greeks do NOT pay their taxes. Republicans don’t want to pay taxes, so they’d love Greece.
- Greek elites such as judges, politicians and regulators always put themselves and their economic self-interest above all else. That’s why bribes are a way of life in Greece. Bribes are seen as a way of increasing your individual wealth rather than seen as weakening the public’s confidence in the nation state or government institutions and accountability. I got to get mine! Who needs public confidence in the nation state anyway? Not Republicans. Once again, for the GOP Greece should be the word.
- Instead of hiring legal, Greek workers, economic elites love to hire and rip off illegal aliens. Hiring illegal aliens and paying them in cash, off the books and without receipts epitomizes enlightened selfishness. Why pay someone legally, pay taxes and fees on income, or contribute to building a Greek middle class by using union labor when I can save money by hiring (and intimidating) an illegal alien who will work for peanuts? The bottom line is more important to Ayn Rand Republicans - and Greek business leaders - that building a middle class or certainly unions.
Those are just 3 examples of
why crisis-ridden Greece is a Republican paradise - and the main reasons why Greece is in such trouble. Maybe the insults will stop.
Or worse! Maybe folks like Paul Ryan will move to this unbeknown Randian paradise know
as modern Greece.
