{"id":6084,"date":"2012-06-29T01:06:39","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T23:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/?p=6084"},"modified":"2012-12-11T17:17:11","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T16:17:11","slug":"it-is-not-the-welfare-state-that-made-greece-go-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/?p=6084","title":{"rendered":"It is not the welfare state that made Greece go bust"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a myth going around that Greece went bust because of the size of its welfare state. And the extension of this myth is that sound finances are incompatible with a sizable welfare state. That it is the welfare state itself that is making other countries such as Spain and Italy approach bankruptcy. But this is not true, many European countries have a bigger welfare state in relation to GDP. Greece did not go bust because of the size of its welfare state in relation to GDP but because of the size of its debt in relation to GDP. Countries can choose to be more or less socialist. What they cannot choose is to be socialist when they can’t afford it. Nordic countries are more socialist than Greece, but they provision for their generosity.<\/p>\n

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There is a myth going around that Greece went bust because of the size of its welfare state. And the extension of this myth is that sound finances are incompatible with a sizable welfare state. That it is the welfare state itself that is making other countries such as Spain and Italy approach bankruptcy. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[575,80,70],"tags":[55,593],"class_list":["post-6084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy-2","category-europe","category-micro","tag-financial-crisis","tag-greece"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t