[andyt]

To say that it's social democratic culture that government should provide services without paying for them. Take a look at the Bush social democrats in the US, or for that matter the Harper commies in Canada if you don't know what I mean.

[Proculation]

andyt andyt:

To say that it's social democratic culture that government should provide services without paying for them. Take a look at the Bush social democrats in the US, or for that matter the Harper commies in Canada if you don't know what I mean.

What's a social democratic culture for you ?
For me it means having a lot of public services, paid by the government, so 'free' by the usage. For that to work, you have to have high taxes like in Sweden.

But in Greece, the government overspent for public services while not having high enough taxes and add to that the tax evasion.

Now, they want to cut services and higher the taxes to meet a more normal budget balance. The Greeks are striking in the streets since months saying they want to keep their services without having higher taxes.

By social democratic culture, that's what I mean.

[andyt]

And as I say, that's the same culture that was operating under Bush in the US. So to call it social democratic is inane.

[Proculation]

andyt andyt:

And as I say, that's the same culture that was operating under Bush in the US. So to call it social democratic is inane.

It's true that the USA are becoming more and more social democratic since some times but I would not consider it a real social democracy. But it's sure is a mixed economy less and less capitalist.

However, even in falling in the stats, the USA are still one of the freest country according to the FMI (5th) while Greece is the second less free in the EU after Poland and only 81st in the world.