Greek Police Confront Protesting Truck Drivers – NYTimes.com

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek police used tear gas Thursday to disperse protesting fuel-truck drivers, whose strike is hurting tourism and industry, after the government issued an emergency order to force them back to work.

The scuffles occurred as some 500 drivers gathered in protest outside the transport ministry, but the incident ended quickly.

Most gas stations around the country remained closed after a crippling three-day strike that has hit Greece’s tourism industry and led to some factory closures and fresh food shortages in parts of the country.

via Greek Police Confront Protesting Truck Drivers – NYTimes.com.

I admire the spirit of the Greek truck drivers. They aren’t taking their IMF medicine sitting down (bad pun). They are out there in the streets fucking shit up to get their point across. And why shouldn’t they be?

One could argue that the citizens of Greece lived beyond their means for too long and now they have to enact deep cuts in order to remain solvent.

One could counter argue that the average working class person in Greece did not live beyond their means and they should not have to give up what they earned. They could argue that the Greek economy was the victim of Financial Dracula’s from US Banking houses who shucked and jived the economy into the ground.

In the case of the truck drivers they are upset because they lived under a system in which they bought trucking licenses from each other. There were a limited number of licenses, none issued in 24 years and so the cost of the licenses became more valuable every year.

Along comes the IMF and they tell the Greek government to issue more licenses to drive the cost to trucking goods down. So Socrates or Plato or Anaximander, or Yanni who bought their license a few years ago is now going to be holding a piece of paper worth far less than he paid for it. Of course he is pissed off.

This happens with Taxi cab licenses in New York City every so often too. The city limits the licenses and they increase in value.

I once had a waiter at Scoma’s on Fisherman’s Wharf who told me that he paid $150,000 to become a waiter there.

Greece is a smaller economy than many US states, if the IMF came into your state and told all the Boars Head drivers that their routes were now worth far less than they paid for them, you’d see some mighty angry deli meat delivery men.

In America, we sit like lumps  on a log talking about Guido’s from the Jersey Shore. We deserve what is coming our way. Just wait until we run out of hair gel and you’ll see some rioting.

Of course in America, the rioter would all be declared enemy combatants and they’d be thrown in back ops prisons and never heard from again. We’ll have to wait and see what happens both in Greece and America.