[July 06, 2015] I’m reminded of a political exhibit that overdramatically shows the contrast of Greek youths of the past with Greek young men today. On one side ancient Greek men: warriors, strong, independent, and harsh-looking. On the other side, the young Greeks of today: potheads, weak, wards of the state, but good-looking. This contrast couldn’t be less obvious in Greece today where hard work is shunned and leadership is good at talk but often corrupt and slow in good decision-making. To illustrate, Greek citizens voted “no” to reject austerity measures to solve their financial crisis and to keep their welfare state.1
The cradle of democracy points directly at Athens, the ancient Greek city-state where the first penal and civil law arose. A few months ago, here in theleadermaker.com I wrote about how Greece citizens had the opportunity to “elect a government that promised to end the past’s dysfunctional power structure and outside influence” and to fight past corruption (see link here). They had the chance elect leaders who had the core values of Greek heritage: strength, economic growth, and independence. In their case, it looks like their leadership failed them.
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” – Margaret Thatcher
The Greeks movement to the political “left” has them taking their chances with a socialist-influenced government. Their leadership has gambled that the Greek participation in the European Union would allow them to continue with their expanded welfare state. Everything now looks as if their socialist government failed to extract concessions from the EU and creditors where Greece owes more money than their entire gross national product. In other words, they’re up to their necks in debt and are about to be held accountable for their overspending.
Here at theLeaderMaker.com I will continue to follow Greece’s government leadership challenges and report them occasionally. This is a good opportunity for leaders to study the effect of government at its best and worst. Can Greece’s leadership extricate them from their financial crisis? The answer is “unlikely.”
This means that the average citizen is going to suffer. Yet, the fact that what they are doing is not working is yet to set in. There are Greek celebrations into the night over the “no” vote which rejected compromise. Those good-looking Greeks are soon going to have to face a reality check.
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