Are the people of Greece being unrealistic in their expectations of continual government spending?

Much like the unionized government workers of the United States?





ATHENS, Greece (AP) 鈥?Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Friday launched a diplomatic quest for concrete support from European leaders in fighting off his country's debt crisis, as workers back home shut down hospitals, schools and public transport to protest painful cuts.





Some 3,000 Communist-affiliated union members protested peacefully outside parliament, where lawmakers were debating a new euro4.8 billion ($6.5 billion) austerity package that will hike consumer taxes and slash public sector workers' pay by up to 8 percent.





"Our protests have to be long-lasting and relentless," protest organizer Giorgos Skiadiotis said. "Because the more rights we surrender, the more they want to take away from us."





Greece's two largest unions were planning more demonstrations later Friday.





http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100305/ap_o鈥?/a>|||Yes they are and we need to study them closely and decide do we really want to follow their lead in my opinion which should be an obvious no|||Apparently you're under the impression that the entire population of Greece consists of 3000 people.





Actually, there appear to have been protests among SOME people, but it doesn't follow that every person in Greece agrees with the protestors.|||They have been living in liberal la la land so long that their economy is collapsing.


That is what Marxists want to happen to all capitalism.|||any one who has ever visited greece knows you can't call them realistic what ever you do call them..|||I think the Greeks are coming to the hard realization that they cannot support the levels of entitlement spending that they currently have. Especially considering that 1/3 of their workers are employed by the civil service. The bureacracy over there must be maddening.





Anytime the government wants to cut spending, no matter what it's on or how stupid the program is, a horde of people who will lose out rise up in protest.|||The recent attacks by these same peaceful communist should have been met with a hail of gunfire, the second the unions attacked the police they should have been shot! Because other countries don't want to pay for your laziness is no reason to attack officials. There is nothing more revolting than scum complaining that they have to take care of themselves. Governments should not play the role of mommy and daddy, Grow up and become a free market and earn your living. The government should dismantle and outlaw the unions.|||yeah, buddy. but for real its all greek to me!LOL! God point|||The biggest EU problem is there is no worker mobility.





In the US, we have one currency, so Florida and California can't just create new money at will, but people can and do move anywhere else in the US to find new employment, and that reduces some of the strain to social safety nets during economic downturns.





Sadly, in the EU, they have one monetary policy, but they really have many unique and somewhat isolated economies (e.g. Countries that were actually running surpluses prior to the economic downturn and paying down debt could--if they were not using a single curency--reasonably expand their money supplies and run up a little more debt during this crisis, but what's good for Spain, is not neccessarily good for France or the UK).





See the problem you get into?





They have one currency, but they do not have one Government like we do, and they do not have the worker mobility we have.





Every Government can have its own budgeting, and what is good for one Government due to its governance doesn't neccessarily work well for another.





I am thinking more about Spain here than I am about Greece, but the argument holds for Greece.|||as the saying goes never trust a Greek in sneakers!