I wasn't referring to the Greens, specifically, merely to the antagonism directed at anyone who espouses the ideas i mentioned in the post. As for blaming the bankruptcy of states on concern for those sorts of things, Shadow Minister, I think you're mistaken. According to the News, the wealthiest individuals and corporations in Greece pay next to no tax, Just as the wealthiest corporation in Australia, the Catholic Church pays zero tax despite greater than eight thousand million dollars profit per annum. [And the Anglicans and others also make very tidy tax free billions]. Italian corruption and theft of most of the social budget and almost zero concern for either the environment or social equity, accounts for much of their debt, and the same goes for Spain, in the development sector where no planning guidelines were enforced, and no check was made on official corruption. And don't neglect the corruption of the big banks and lending houses world wide that have accepted blatantly false valuations on properties and enterprises in order to lend big bucks that could never be repaid. It is simply not true to blame spending on social services for the downturn

ybgirp, social irresponsibility is only part of the problem.
The real basis for the collapse in Europe was bad lending practises
so that when the price of oil climbed from $40 to $124 there was
nothing left to pay their interest bill and their borrowed money.

It crashed the financial system and the rest is history.
So now they are playing Monopoly and do not yet realise the present
situation is permanent.

ybgirp,

Everything has consequences, even the nordic states have found out that the cost of this pie in the sky socialism is economic ruin, and have wound much of it back.