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Economy
In reply to the discussion: STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, December 20, 2011. [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)5. NEVER BAILED OUT: Europe’s ants and grasshoppers revisited
Last edited Tue Dec 20, 2011, 08:00 AM - Edit history (1)
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2011/12/15/never-bailed-out-europes-ants-and-grasshoppers-revisited/A new take on Aesops tale, tailor-made for our European Moment in History, at a time when Europes collapse is being guaranteed by the dominance of the wrong narrative. What follows is an attempt at an alternative take; one that is more in tune with a decent future for Europe.
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SEE LINK FOR TWO VERSIONS OF THE STORY
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Moral of the story (All Aesop tales have one!)
Many think of Aesops parable as a morality tale whose purpose was simply to warn against sloth, laziness and an unhealthy disregard for the future. Alas, it was more than that. Aesop was sounding the alarm bell against both the grasshoppers spendthrift ways and the ants extreme parsimony.
Today there is another wrinkle that needs to be added to his moral: That, when the ants and the grasshoppers are distributed across the division separating surplus from deficit nations within a badly designed monetary union, the stage is set for a depression that sets all against all in a vicious spiral from which only losers can emerge. A stage from which no one can be bailed out (even those who, like Germany, can bail out themselves, by leaving the eurozone, will be committing a form of slowburning, long run, suicide.
Our only option: To subvert the dominant narrative. Recognising the co-existence of neglected ants and over-pampered grasshoppers throughout the eurozone is a good beginning.
IN OTHER WORDS, WE ARE THE 99%!
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