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| Europe |
| Thousands Rally against Portugal Austerity |
| 2013-02-17 |
| [An Nahar] Thousands of protesters rallied in Portugal on Saturday against austerity measures imposed on the country by its international creditors. Answering a call from the CGTP, Portugal's leading union, some 5,000 protesters marched in Lisbon and organizers said tens of thousands rallied in about 20 cities across the country. "We want to break with the commitments made in return for the rescue plan, break with right-wing policies, demand the resignation of the government and new elections," union chief Armenio Carlos said. Crushed by a soaring public debt load, Portugal has implemented tough austerity measures in return for rescue loans from the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and International Monetary Fund. Under the weight of cutbacks in public spending, the unemployment rate rose sharply in the fourth quarter of last year to 16.9 percent while the economy contracted by 3.2 percent in 2012. "We can feel the lack of money every day, the cost of transportation has gone up, along with school fees. This policy has no future, it is destroying the country's economy," said protester Maria Manuel Reis, a 55-year-old civil servant. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #13 #11 Frank I'm sorry but you're correct. I've been substitute teaching in middle & high school since I retired. Kids are generally better than I expected. Teachers? Some are really good, some are pretty bad, most are middle of the road; BUT, the most problems (not all) for teachers are the rules and curriculum that they are forced to live under. They are buried in PC administrivia and can't change the curriculum provided by the State "educators". The econ text I had to teach from (basically baby sit, little teaching) barely touched on the idea of supply and demand except in the context of proper government control of both. I spoke to the econ teacher one other day and she was doing her best to include some reality but.......... At least she skipped the unit in the approved book on Islamic banking. Social Studies is by far the worst. Everything is based on white guilt and cultural relativism. Yeeecccchhhhhhh! |
| Posted by: Alanc 2013-02-17 17:04 |
| #12 Thank you for reporting from the belly of the beast, Phaith Grique4599. That does change ur u derstanding of the article. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2013-02-17 15:55 |
| #11 you DO know that high school teachers would teach economic justice, not what you're expecting? The change needs to start in the educational base. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-02-17 15:44 |
| #10 Well then you'd have to teach maths. In reality all economics AKA study of wealth creation boils down to comparative advantage i.e. exchanging our time. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2013-02-17 15:30 |
| #9 When will we make economics a required course in school, but without the critical theory class warfare crap? Its all about limited resources and marginal cost and opportunity costs. Since no one that writes monetary policy and formulates national budgets understand this, we are going to see an endless string of shattered economies thanks to all of these clowns that did not get past Chapter 5 of Maynard Keynes (who by the way NEVER said you could spend your way out of a recession. He said there was a balance between deficit spending, tax rates, unemployment, interest rates, and inflation, you break the relationship the whole thing goes haywire.) What we need is more economics in high school and less self esteem training. If the little dumbasses coming out of school understood a few things about economics and less about being "important" we might have a chance. |
| Posted by: Bill Clinton 2013-02-17 14:58 |
| #8 The "right wing" Government are just social democrats and centrists. So for communists they are "right wing". They are socialists just less. The "austerity" doesn't exist we are still borrowing at 5-6% defict year. This Government is helpless they attack the people with taxes, and penalizations that made this week an ex-secretary of this own government say that if any fiscal police would check him if he got a bill to any transaction, he would say to them "take in the ass". Btw 5000 in Lisbon in city with 1 million is nothing. They are the unions, unions btw that made the Public Railway Company have had some sort of strike in more than 200 days of the last year. |
| Posted by: Phaith Grique4599 2013-02-17 14:01 |
| #7 No, BP, just pointing out the consequences. Unless there is the willingness of the people to face the 'Dane', society will be better off paying the geld. (Not to mention, after living off the geld for long enough the Dane will get soft, and more likely to lose quickly in the final confrontation.) |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2013-02-17 11:39 |
| #6 Glenmore I suppose you think paying the DaneGeld gets rid of the Dane... |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2013-02-17 11:23 |
| #5 This policy has no future, it is destroying the country's economy. Look at this way comrade. Austerity isnÂ’t simply a misguided economic policy. Think of it as the inevitable symptom of decades of borrowed promises from a bloated state. Hope that helps? |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2013-02-17 11:13 |
| #4 If the government stops providing for its unemployed - and unemployable - young men they will likely take matters into their own hands, and form roving gangs of predators. (See Somalia for a case study.) Desperation gets very ugly. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2013-02-17 07:40 |
| #3 No, actually a too big state and its borrowing destroyed the countries future. It also allowed it to pretend to be wealthier than it really was. What you are seeing now is how productive the country is with all that metastatic government. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2013-02-17 06:55 |
| #2 Any grownups left in Europe? Yes, a few Bundesbankers and a lot of Friday temple goers.. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2013-02-17 06:41 |
| #1 "We want to break with the commitments made in return for the rescue plan, break with right-wing policies, demand the resignation of the government and new elections," union chief Armenio Carlos said. Any grownups left in Europe? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2013-02-17 05:13 |