Greek riots are scary harbinger

Pundits of many political stripes are correctly viewing Greece’s fiscal crisis as a harbinger for other welfare states of the Western world, including the United States.

This week, the European Union approved a bailout on the order of nearly $1 trillion for Greece and other unstable member states. The intention was to defend the Euro, restore market confidence and generate economic recovery,  but the predictable long-term outcome is that a day of reckoning has been delayed for reforming unsustainable government-funded entitlements.

Greece’s situation is not difficult to grasp, and it is just the most extreme demonstration of the faulty government structures throughout Europe. Greece is so severely in debt that it can no longer function without resorting to “austerity measures” that have sparked rioting and strikes in recent weeks, mostly driven by public and private union members who are unwilling to give up benefits they’ve grown accustomed to.

Because of that political pressure and the bailout, it is not likely that serious and enduring reforms will happen in Greece or other European countries.

One German economist put it this way: “I fear that states will no longer feel any pressure to lower their deficits... Should they not massively reduce their debts, the problems will only be bigger three years down the road because the stronger countries are currently guaranteeing the debts of the weaker ones.”

So what are we doing here in the United States? We are heading down the same road, with the federal government piling up deficits on a historic scale and many states doing the same thing.

Americans should start to consider that a state like California could be our very own Greece. California’s deep budget troubles are also largely driven by completely unsustainable policies designed to benefit public sector unions.

Take Los Angeles as an example. Columnist George Will reports this week that the city’s mayor, who once represented the Service Employees International Union, added 5,000 people to the city’s payroll in his first term, but is now “trying to cope with, and partially undo, largesse for unionized public employees.”

The mayor now describes the SEIU as “the most powerful defender of the status quo.”

Not a good thing. If California has to resort to serious “austerity measures,” will we one day see rioting there too?

Greece has shown us the future. Americans should be able to see it plain as day and do everything possible to avoid that future.