THE GREEK ADDICTION TO BORROWING
It is well known amongst doctors: Anyone can become addicted to anything.
One can become addicted to a loving spouse who does everything, and that is considered healthy.
One can also become addicted to being totally lazy, even too lazy to brush one’s teeth, and that is considered unhealthy.
The obvious addiction is to drugs or alcohol or tobacco, but, the mechanism of addiction is always the same: Pleasure forces the mind to seek the same pleasure over and over.
The mechanism of pleasure seeking is simple: The behavior that results in pleasure becomes stronger through repetition—and all apposing behaviors become weaker through lack of use.
Whatever gives one pleasure crowds out the behavior that results in a lack of pleasure. With the use of drugs, there is also a buildup of chemicals in the body that are extremely painful if not suppressed by the drugs.
If a drug user stops taking drugs these chemicals are so powerful they create physical and mental pain called “The Withdrawal Syndrome.” The “Withdrawal Syndrome” can result in the death of the drug user.
When a drug using patient enters a hospital in the throes of “The Withdrawal Syndrome” the doctors caring for him or her must inject the patient with drugs similar to the ones the patient had been using. If this is not done, the patient may die.
In Alcohol Withdrawal, there is a three percent chance that the patient may die in spite of all good efforts by the medical staff!
BORROWING MONEY ADDICTION
Borrowing money, either by an individual, a group or a country, is definitely an addiction.
Borrowing money fulfills all the criteria of addiction:
- The borrowed money gives pleasure.
- It requires no work, except the act of begging for the loan.
- It is very painful when the lender refuses to lend more.
- It results in “The Withdrawal Syndrome” when the money is no longer available.
The Borrowing Money Syndrome is prevalent in Western Society. Wherever you look today, there are lenders, who are equivalent to Drug Dealers, trying to lend anyone money. Their reward is huge, because there is no work involved in lending money, and the governments and legal systems of the Western World protect them against those who fail to repay the loans.
There are advertisements everywhere, enticing individuals to borrow money: “Find out your Credit Score Free!” The only reason one wants to know their Credit Score is if that person wants to borrow money.
These advertisements are not seen in China where credit scores and easy lending is unavailable. Only addicted Westerners surrounded by Drug Dealing Lenders are interested in borrowing and lending.
EVEN COUNTRIES BORROW
The practice of borrowing and lending has pervaded the West for the last half century. In the centuries prior to the Twentieth Century such behavior was relatively unknown.
It is true that throughout history royalty and a small number of citizens became infected with the disease of borrowing. This phenomenon produced the big Drug Dealing banks of Europe and the U.S.
The Rothschild Banks are the most famous. They lent to royalty who wanted to start wars in order to increase their wealth. What transpired is that the Rothschild’s became wealthy and the royalty was left in tatters.
In the last century countries began to borrow in order to appease their citizens and also to rob the public in order to reward those wealthy parties who provided the politicians with posts of power and importance.
The citizens wanted the ability to retire at an early age; they wanted universal health care; they wanted compensation if they became unemployed; and they wanted the infrastructure of their country to be modern and well kept.
These desires are entirely reasonable and can easily be fulfilled by the use of a simple tax system. However, since tax revenues are always diverted to special interest groups, the governments decided to borrow in order to fund the desires of their citizens.
Governments were considered above the need to get a Credit Score. After all, how could a country default on a debt? A country need only tax its citizens and the debt will ultimately be paid. The banking system in Europe and the USA relied on this false premise.
As we are seeing, countries can enter periods of economic disaster where citizens have no money to pay their taxes. Countries have become bankrupt in the past, but never ‘to the degree nor to the extent that we are witnessing in the West in the 21st. Century.
Today, Europe and the USA are in debt to such an immense degree, that it is inconceivable that the debt can be repaid!
GREECE IS THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
Greece, the money addict, who is going through The Withdrawal Syndrome of being unable to pay its debts, needs to have injections of cash into its financial system so that it will not die.
This is identical to the treatment of a drug addict in withdrawal. The injections of cash instead of valium create the same effect: the patient becomes calm until the need for more injections become apparent.
If Greece were the only patient, the medico-financial system could handle the treatment. But, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and perhaps, even the U.K., may need treatment. There is not enough money on the entire Planet to pay off the loans of all the borrowing countries.
China, Japan and other Asian countries have already loaned as much money as they can to the Western borrowing addicts.
The only recourse the West has is to debase their currency— thereby, repudiating or defaulting on their loans. The USA and Europe have already started this activity.
When international investors completely understand the process which is occurring they will leave the Euro and the U.S. Dollar and take haven in other currencies and the precious metals.
The countries involved, Europe and the USA, will try to return to an economic system that is real: The production of goods and services which can be traded on the world market.
However, they will have to face the competition of China, Japan, India, Brazil and Russia. The governments, managers and workers of these countries are not addicts. They do not expect pleasure as a reward for not working.
The governments, managers and workers in Europe and the USA are all addicted. They expect pleasure from simply saying: “Lend me money.”
This scenario has never been seen on the planet. No matter how irrational the people of the past have been, they always were tied to some degree with reality.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
It is impossible for any observer to predict the future of the economy and the social well being of billions of people.
One thing we do know: A very small percentage of people who enter The Withdrawal Syndrome die.
Countries do not die. But in history, we have seen mighty countries collapse and turn into unimportant collections of people who live for decades in poverty.
