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Alkis Konstantinidis / EPA
Pedestrians cover their faces as they stand among marble pieces and debris after clashes erupted Sunday, in Athens, Greece, on Monday, Feb. 13, 2012.
Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP - Getty Images
The burnt structures included the neo-classical home to the Attikon cinema dating from 1870. "We are all very angry with these measures but this is not the way out," said Dimitris Hatzichristos, 30, a public sector worker surveying the debris.
Msnbc.com news services report from ATHENS, Greece — Firefighters doused smoldering buildings and cleanup crews swept rubble from the streets of central Athens on Monday following a night of rioting during which lawmakers approved harsh new austerity measures demanded by bailout creditors to save the nation from bankruptcy.
At least 45 buildings were burned, including one of the capital's oldest restored cinemas, while dozens of stores and cafes were smashed and looted.
"Night of terror inside and outside the parliament," conservative daily Eleftheros Typos wrote on its front page. Read the full story.
Related: PhotoBlog posts of Greek reaction to austerity measures
Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP - Getty Images
People stand in a vandalised shop in central Athens on Feb. 13, 2012.
Alkis Konstantinidis / EPA
Damaged buildings in Athens on Feb. 13, 2012. The violent clashes, the worst Greece has seen in decades, caused irreparable damage in Athens after demonstrators set fire to buildings and looted their way through dozens of shops at the weekend, the mayor of Athens said.
Dimitri Messinis / AP
People walk past graffiti which reads "Rob to gain money" on a wall of the central bank of Greece in Athens on Feb. 13, 2012.
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America - we need to watch carefully what is happening in Greece. The same thing is going to happen here because we have 40% or more of the country who is dependent on some form of government handout to survive. Sooner or later, those of us who are paying the tab are going to say "Enough" also, and when that happens, there isn't going to be enough tax revenue to keep mama with 6 babies going. These thugs who run around smashing everything, I'd like to know how the person who owns a shop deserves to have his or her store vandelized, shoes stolen, and burned to the ground, how that helps the cause? The only reason that these thugs do this, isn't to make their point known, but rather they are already inclined to be selfish, evil people who only need an excuse to do what they would do anyway. They are nothing more than thugs and criminals. There are civil ways to deal with issues you don't agree with - one is thru a vote, and the other is to stop being dependent on a government, and then get mad when the government can't steal anymore legally from your neighbor and give to you.
You are quite wrong and have no idea what you are talking about. How do I know this, well among other things you reference the mythical welfare queen.
Greece had/has no endemic industry to generate income, in addition the state over spent hence the debt. Also Greeks are tax dodgers, many of them simply do not pay and the government never forced them to. For example only 16 Athenians reported owning a swimming pool in 2009 whereas satellite pictures show over 300 such swimming pools.
In the US our social spending is NOT, I repeat, IS NOT the problem. Social Security and Medicare DO NOT contribute a penny to the deficit, they are self funded. They exception is GWB's medicare part D, this could be solved though if we chose to make it self-funded. In the US rather our money get poured in to the defense dept, that is where it goes and that is the source of our deficit. People like bitch about Obama increasing spending - that is just an optical illusion created by the fact that he included the wars in the budget rather than hide them like Bush did.
Furthermore, we can tax a lot more. Are the wealthy tired of paying all the taxes? Then they should pay their employees more so that they earn enough to pay taxes. That the tax burden falls on the wealthy is entirely their own fault.
Spectacular, you are clearly a political hound that cannot see that both left and right in the United States are corrupt losers. You believe Obama is fixing Bush's mistakes, just like the conservatives believe that Bush fixed Clinton's mistakes.
The truth is they are all corrupt turds that are destroying our country, and yes this includes Obama.
When you talk about the programs being self-funding, and not adding to our deficit, that shows you're not "up" on how things work in Washington under either party. First and foremost, all taxes garnished by the Federal Government are put into a general fund, no matter what their label is on your pay check. As far as the politicians are concerned, all that money is there to be spent as they see fit, not collected and used for its true purpose.
To give you an idea of how bad it is that we do not compartmentalize spending and bar it from entering the general fund, if you were born in the mid 1990s, in order to sustain social security in its current form, the majority of American workers will need to be taxed at 80% of their income at the federal level by 2060. Not only is the social welfare an unsustainable model, it's amplified by the fact that in years of surplus we never actually saved that money, thus we continue the pyramid scheme of bulking the working to pay for the old and disabled day to day, and all excess is lost thrown to other garbage that we cannot afford.
The left and the right have both grown government. The core problem is that government only grows, it never shrinks. Eventually a government gets so big that its spending out weighs the productive power of its countrymen, and you run into deficits. These deficits can only be taken care of through increased taxes, or cuts, and as I've already said government almost never shrinks except after revolutions and changes of power. Greece is a micro version of the United States' problem in that our current rate of spending has out paced our production. We will implode.
You never tax the rich, because the rich pass the burden onto the poor...it's the greatest scheme in history because it makes the poor feel like they're winning. They're not. To look at it on a micro level, imagine you're a business man or business woman. Say your tax rate is 30% and you're selling a product that you want to make $1.00 profit on. If you are not paying taxes, and say that item cost you $1.50, you will sell it for $2.50 to make your $1.00. So right now, all other things equal, that business man sells that product for $2.92, still making his $1.00 profit.
I just want to restate my point, taxes are all levied on the poor and middle class, ALWAYS. It's a delusion that you ever hurt the rich and increase the prosperity of the poor by taxing the rich more. Without getting advanced into it, that is a generic model...when you through in inflation, and more complex models, the wealthy can maintain their position through the devaluation of currency, and the poor are making less but may see a slight raise, thus they've effectively been owned.
Right and left is BS. Don't buy into it.
Wake up USA. This type of behavior is the result of pathetic economics education. Destruction of property results in less taxable income for the damaged businesses and the insurance companies. The result -- the government has even LESS tax money available for social services.
Social programs spread the FALSE belief that money can come from the government. Nothing could be farther from economic reality. The wealth of a society is ONLY created by businesses that ADD value to a raw material or product that can then be sold at a profit. Taxes on profits fund the government. A society that chases away its businesses has nothing to tax and quickly becomes a 3rd world country. Unless we work harder and require our government to spend less, we are headed to the 3rd world fast, along with Greece.
True, and with the greatest transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy that has gone unchecked for the past 3 decades, there will be even more people in need of some form of assistance; these are desperate times.
All this hate of Germany in Greece... but what do the looters steal? Adidas shoes. Why would they wear shoes made by one of those "nazis" they hate so much?
any excuse to loot....same as in new orleans.i pity your great country
Wake up America........this is our future if our failed fiscal leadership, actions and policies don't change fast. How stupid can we be repeating the fiscal failures of Greece through massive irresponsible spending!
We're an armed nation unlike those wimps in Europe. In past riots in the U.S., business owners have shot and killed those breaking into their stores. Riot at your own peril.
Time to order a general curfew, then hose down the streets with machine gun fire. Kill looters and rioters on sight, restore order at any cost. As for the malcontents, let them eat dogpoop.
cities in america are tinder boxes waiting to explode. could you imagine if law and order temporarily broke down in an amercian city for evern a few hours. People would not stand together, all the welfare losers, dropouts and gangsters would go wild and burn the city down out of jealousy and bring everyone down to their pathetic levels.
but because they are uneducated, and ignorant, they wouldnt realize that now they wont be getting anymore food stamps
It's the same in any part of the world, the thugs wait for this to happen and then they steal.
These thugs never had anything in life and never will because they come from back grounds of families that have always lived off the government.
Lock them all up.
I love it!! burn baby burn
It's so easy for the super rich to fool and rob the poor by making the Laws and buying the politicians who are suppose to represent these damn fools, who sacrifice their children to wars in the name of market expansion, while the super rich send their children on vacation, then use their media outlets as a subterfuge to keep the fools in a delirium of false security and pompous righteousness and to conjure up the audacity to call the poor useless, shiftless and uncaring. Take a look at Yourself!!!
This is the what waits us here in America if we do not stand up for the values that our forefathers fought for. We have let our nation slid to the point we have a president who will gladly take our freedom and call us racist if we disagree with him. We need to wake up and take a stand against all the welfare, all the spending. Keep in mind that the govt only obtains $$$ by taking it from the working people and gives it to the non working. This can only keep up for so long.
get a grip.
The problem here is not large social programs vs. no or small social programs, or high taxes vs. low or no taxes. The economic problem is unpaid for expenditures. Germany has many social programs and Scandinavian countries have even more. There are debtor countries with and without social programs, and there are solvent countries with and without social programs. I see many jumping on the low tax bandwagon. Currently, this is the other half of the problem. We repeatedly increased expendentures while continuing to lower taxes. Many Greeks were not paying their taxes. It matters little whether this is accomplished through legislation such as reducing tax rates, cutting staff at the IRS to weaken enforcement, creating special tax breaks and loopholes, or winking at tax cheats - as in Greece. I saw it put very well by someone else. Greece wanted cheap socialism. If you are looking for simplicity, greed is the problem. If we are to find a way forward it will be through working together to solve problems and not through senseless vitriol.
It is cutting of funding to working class citizens no austerity measures for the rich.....
How come NO ONE in Washington want to admit that the major problem in this country is HIGH LABOR COST and too many people are getting handouts because they didn't treasure their opportunities in getting a good education while they were young. Why keep on saying taxing the rich and give it to the poor? They should reduce their own benefit packages when they are serving the people. Most of them are rich themselves.
We need to reform our tax code and stop playing politic which is hurting this great nation and dividing its people. Refine the welfare programs and make people work for their meals if they are capable. Start through those cheating recipients into jails and reintroduce the old family values back into our home.
Don't forget that most politicians are rich and will to do and say anything to get a vote. It is a simple matter. How can we spend more than we take in? We should redefine our social programs and bring back the old family value so that people can learn their responsibilities while they are young. I hate to hear the politicians keep on saying that we should take from the rich and give to the poor. They should lead by start reducing their own benefit packages and do something constructive to resolve the high labor cost in this great nation.
Cleaning up the damage creates jobs!
Hey im Greek and i say let GREECE BURN
I am an Athenian (from Athens) woman of this great and beautiful country of Hellas. Stop to call it Greece. Hellas is the name of my country through the 3000 thousands years of its history. Shame to you Danny, because you are Hellenas and as concern the rest of you who commented the yesterdays episodes in my city, I feel pity for you because you don't know what really happens here. The media all over the world write lies about the reasons of the economical crisis in my country. The reason of the depth in my country wasn't created from us because we don't pay taxes. The depth of my country is the result of corrupted politicians and of rich people who stole the money of the people. They deindustrializated the country and we spend much money to income products from all over the world. The money of Hellenes move the industries of many countries. Now you will ask, "Why they did that?" Because they follow the orders of their bosses to drive the country into bankruptcy. Why? Because my country is one of the richest countries of the world. We sleep upon millions tones of petroleum. This is the reason of the future buncruptcy. To take the petroleum. Try to find more pluralistic sources of information about what happens in the real world and not the fast food information. I hope these few things I wrote will awake your brain and make you more thinking persons and not robots, as well as to look with more sympathy my great country. Sorry for my bad English. And something more. I am 66 years old, I worked hard into my life and my husband too and we pay our taxes regularly. But my newborn grandson, if he was today 20 years old his salary would be 480 euros. This is that Troika commands among the others. who can live with these money, who can make a family. God bless you all and Hellenes too.