Monday, June 29, 2015

Rewarding Bad Behavior


When governments reward bad behavior ... they get more bad behavior ... this is the cold hard reality of life. Germany and the European Union are relearning this ages-old lesson as a result of the crisis in Greece where this country had been propped up by it neighbors as it went on a multi-year spree of excessive pensions and tax cheating ... with the natural result of digging itself into a financial hole from which there is no logical outcome except default ... see: Boomberg Story. This same scenerio is being repeated here in the United States as Puerto Rico is also teetering on the brink of bankruptcy ... see: New York Times Story. And let us not forget Detroit.

How is it that we keep forgetting this well-defined lesson? The parameters of fiscal responsibility are so obvious that ignoring them cannot be accidental. Political poltroons have to know that they are laying land mines for their predecessors when they offer multiple freebies to voters in order to get elected ... yet they continue to exhibit this bad behavior ... usually without consequences to themselves. And this is the rub. There is no claw-back for such fiscal irresponsibility ... and there should be. Perhaps, whenever a political entity goes bankrupt, all the previously responsible politicians (and their heirs) who caused this catastrophe should lose all their government-acquired assets, pensions and any other government perks that they still enjoy.

Is this so difficult?

Afterward: And now a prediction from the Ghost of the Christmas Future: Washington Examiner Story.

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