The Wages of Europe’s Contempt for Democracy

The wages of sin is death, or so I have read. The wages of Europe's sins against Democracy are now being paid out. Just when it seemed that the Eurocrats had fashioned a solution to the problem of Greece, democracy rears its many ugly heads. From the British Telegraph:

On Monday afternoon, [Greece's prime minister George] Papandreou announced a referendum on whether to accept the EU's bail-out terms. He had evidently had enough of the antics of the opposition party, New Democracy, which kept insisting that Greece remain in the euro, while opposing all the austerity measures necessary to that end – an outrageous stance given that New Democracy ran up the deficit in the first place. Papandreou hoped to force his opponents off the fence: in favour of the spending cuts or against euro membership. Perhaps he also hoped to put pressure on the EU to offer more generous terms.

Now I have to say that this looks like the worst possible moment to hold a referendum. Europe is facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis, one which threatens banks all over the world. Working out an agreement on a very specific and complex issue involving a number of nations is the kind of thing that governments are for. In such a case as this, democracy is best honored by letting the voters judge the government in the next election.

That this is happening now is largely a consequence of the fact that the Eurocrats were utterly contemptuous of democracy as they were cobbling their system together. No nation should have joined the European Constitution without a popular referendum. The formation of a real European union involved a transfer of national sovereign powers. Well, who was properly in possession of those sovereign powers?

The problem was that many important nations that held such referendums (France is a good example) saw them voted down. At that point the proper procedure would have been to go back to the drawing board and try to produce a system that would be acceptable to Europe's various peoples. Instead, the Eurocrats did an end run around democracy by substituting a treaty for a transnational constitution. That might have worked if the system they produced had been coherent and sustainable. It wasn't.

The conduct of the Eurocrats was based on the idea that the elites in Europe know better than the people what is good for them. It is now rather evident that the elites don't their ass from oatmeal. With the exceptions of Germany and the UK, Europe's governments have run themselves off a fiscal cliff. The European monetary system they created was all but designed to fail and it is failing. Europe looks to be splitting into two, with Germany presiding over the nations that adopted the Euro as their currency.

So now the fate of the European Union, and perhaps the world economy, is about to be decided by referendum in Greece, perhaps the most fiscally irresponsible European state of all. The wages of the Eurocrats' sins will be paid, even if nothing else is.

Comments

[Donald Pay]

Lots of parallels to the US right now. The center right party in Greece tanked the economy, leaving it for the center left party to pick up the pieces. The center left party tried to be fiscally responsible, but the center right party wanted to play politics. When you have an obstructionist and irresponsible center right party the only course is to go to the people. Papandreou showed guts and trust in the people. There's a lesson here, and the Republicans better pay attention.

[Headshots Los Angeles]

At first i thought that the Greeks voting on the EU Bailout was silly. Now i've reconsidered. The Greek people would revolt if their leaders made this deal. Now the People are going to have to take responsability for the bailout.

[Thad Wasson]

What two world wars couldn't do, the German bankers are about to accomplish. That is, western Europe under German control. The only way out for Greece and the others is to ditch the Euro and go back to their own currency.

[Stan Gibilisco]

For those people who want to re-fashion the U.S. economy to more closely resemble that of the European countries, we see some chilling news and some lukewarm news.

The chilling news: If we do it wrong, we'll end up worse off than we are now. Examples: Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece.

The lukewarm news: If we do it right, we'll end up okay (but maybe no better off than we are now). Examples: Germany and France.

All of the European countries have higher tax burdens than we have, including the one tax I especially hate: the value-added tax (VAT).

For the record, I say let Europe stay European, and let America stay American.

The common denominator I see, regardless of tax policy or political-spectrum orientation, goes like this: If we live beyond our means, we'll sink. If we live within our means, we'll stay afloat (assuming that an overwhelming number of the former types don't sink the whole world).

[larry kurtz]

Germany is the power in Europe because of its strong bond with unions. CBS reports that 15% of Americans are among the poorest of the poor. If the Oakland protests turn any more violent, expect a general strike that will reverse whatever economic recovery consumers have salvaged from the flight of wealth that the 1% have taken from the people.

With winter descending on the northern tier of the US and Canada, the people that cannot afford to flee will begin dying, not just on the reservations, but in the small towns that have been abandoned by America.

Mark my words here, failed red state of South Dakota, unless the rich share, democracy as we have known it will perish.

[larry kurtz]

The good news? With the rich killing the economy, carbon emissions are down.