Is Greece heading for a breakdown in government that could lead to a new dictatorship/ Are the IMF and the EU pushing it that way with their insistence on draconian austerity measures as the price for financial aid? Do they really want to do that?

Greece has been a dictatorship before if my memory serves (“regime of the colonels” back in the 60’s), though I’ll have to check. Do we really want to see more authoritarian governments in Europe just as Middle Eastern countries are trying to get rid of theirs.

Strict austerity, deep cuts in government programs produce less income for the State which can cause more cuts and less income with each cycle producing fewer jobs for ordinary people and the resulting unhappiness, restiveness, and an even lesser ability to pay off debt. Extremists and revolutionaries tend to grow in such periods, and I fail to see how it makes economic sense or even common sense. Punishing a people for getting in debt by making less likely for them to be able to pay off debt is just a non-solution. Doesn’t anyone remember what the IMF did to Argentina? Collective punishment just abuses the people least able to withstand its rigors. Those who evade taxes and have wealth will not be hurt. What do the Germans and the IMF gain from such actions? Anything?

It’s beginning to feel a bit like the chaos of the late 20’s and early 30’s and the rise of Hitler and Mussolini. Since the push for deep spending cuts occurs here at home as well as in Europe, are we all headed for more authoritarianism than we have already? How many more of our rights are we going to lose? Will the military ultimately take over everything? If the Republicans are determined to be blinded by their hatred of Obama as President of the US, and insist on causing a debt crisis here for purely ideological reasons that make no sense, they will be responsible for causing the misery of millions. How, then, do they think they will be elected? Just by exercising their noise machine?

It’s past time for progressives to stand up for values they believe in. I refuse to believe that those who make the most more have anything approaching a majority in the country.