In other words, in such a vacuum, very soon, if we are not careful, we are going to have a German problem ? again.
A problem to whom?
Did anyone understand the article? Germany and France, respective populations of 80 million and 65 million, do better than Greece (pop. 11 million.) Wow, who woulda thunk? Both big countries rich in natural resources, with centuries-old traditions of higher learning, science, research, heavy industry, etc., among the most prosperous in the world, and Greece a dirt-poor country, one of the poorest in Europe for most of the last century, subjected to Nazi occupation, followed by a devastating civil war.
<<Does New York bail out Lousiania and West Virginia?>>
I dunno, Canada has Federal Equalization Payments, which are basically a way of transferring tax revenues from the richer to the poorer provinces. There's gotta be some kind of equivalent system in the U.S.A., I'd think it's likely built into every federal system of government.
Greece has a lot of problems, but to turn this into a "lazy fucking Greeks versus hard-working thrifty Germans" is a ludicrous example of pre-formed conclusions generating their own arguments from bogus "facts." Here's another bonus gleaned from the same Wikipedia article on Greece:
A meaningless stat without comparative data from other EU governments. If it IS out of line, it probably means corruption - - non-productive drones on the payroll, whose "work" is accepted on a total-hours basis into the GDP, just like the work of a seafarer, farm or hotel worker.
I have no interest in building your argument. You are the one who introduced the stat totally out of context. I neither agree nor disagree with the conclusion that you drew from it, I merely point out how the stat alone, out of context, means nothing.
But I don't think you were referring to the role of government as opposed to other industries within the Greek economy, I thought your intent was to demonstrate where Greece was out of step with other national economies in the EU.
But I don't think you were referring to the role of government as opposed to other industries within the Greek economy, I thought your intent was to demonstrate where Greece was out of step with other national economies in the EU.
Obviously not. If that's information you're interested in, feel free to look up the figures. I was pointing out that the largest "industry" in Greece is civil service.
<<Obviously not. If that's information you're interested in, feel free to look up the figures. I was pointing out that the largest "industry" in Greece is civil service.>>ouroboros
So that is necessarily bad? Why?
Sorry but I don't see that analogy between eating one's own tail and a government that produces 40% of the GDP.
My original question was, what's necessarily bad about a government producing 40% of the national GDP, and I'd still like to see a straight answer to the question, with or without an analogy about eating tail. Every government produces some part of the GDP, so what is so bad about 40%?
<<So "Produced " need not mean that any new value was created ?>>Worse at fudging the books.
No, and that's one of the problems with a too-slavish adherence to GDP as a measure of economic progress. Oil spill clean-ups add nothing. (Although philosophically, they could be considered a necessary part of every country's oil industry.) Billions of dollars are spent advertising or marketing Corn Flakes as against Grape Nuts or Wheaties - - WTF do those dollars really add to the economy? If $100 billion worth of cigarettes are produced, that goes into the GDP, as does the whole medical effort to fight the cancers created by them.
<<What if the entire economy was government?>>
That was the U.S.S.R., to all practical purposes. That was the original Israeli kibbutz too. You lack the stimulus of competition. That is a problem that the Communists have never solved satisfactorily, except to compromise on the principles of Communism and award special status to "Hero of the Soviet Union," "Hero of Labour," etc. "Hero Factory." "Hero Collective Farm." But theoretically, the government could produce a lot of services and products better and cheaper than private industry - - there is no profit motive pushing up prices, cutting corners on quality, etc. In the 1930s, the GDP of the U.S.S.R. was rising faster than that of any other industrialized country. I think they were better Communists in those days. Purer, closer to the Communist ideals.
You aren't learning shit. The proposal to break up financial institutions over certain size criteria was just shot down a day or two ago. I'm betting a gallon of gas will cost about the same in any service station in your area. If Shell is a penny higher today, it will be Exxon that is a penny higher next week or the week after. It's a giant shell game (no pun intended) and the myth of "competition" and "market forces" as far as the consumer is concerned is pure BS.