Greeks Say "I Don't Pay"

CNBC points out that polls in Greece show an increase in an “I Don’t Pay” movement.

Greek citizens cannot do much anytime soon about government expenditure cuts. They may eventually vote out the ruling party as the Irish did. Greeks have decided the best form of resistance to austerity is that they will not pay their taxes in greater and greater numbers. Another sign of their discontent is that Greeks do not want to pay tolls on their highway system. That means they either won’t drive or will drive through toll points much as hooligans jump subway gates in New York City

The reaction in European nations which need budget cuts and bailouts has taken two paths. One is to remove politicians who favor austerity. Another is a form of civil disobedience. Both roads come to the same place. The money that the IMF and EU have put into these nations in the form of debt is at greater risk. Austerity may be rejected altogether. People in these countries believe they are entitled to the lives they have had all along.

The situation in the US, as it moves toward a modest austerity program of its own, is not entirely different from the ones in Ireland and Greece. A recent Wall Street Journal poll reports that American are against cuts in Social Security by a large margin. Taxpayers have put money into the fund as they were forced to by law. They expect the returns that they were promised. Those returns may be even more important than they were a decade ago. Many older Americans have not saved enough money to cover retirement expenses.

Austerity has taken hold across much of the world as the only reasonable way to address deficits and eventually bring down national debts. The one thing governments did not count on was an outright rejection of the plans by their own citizens.

Douglas A. McIntyre