Eventually, People Figure Things Out

Reality can't be ignored forever. First, some in Greece are still ignoring it.

June 29 (Bloomberg) -- More than 9,000 protesters marched through Athens today as Greek unions staged their fifth general strike of the year to challenge government plans to cut pension benefits and loosen labor laws.

The walkout halted state services including public transport and tax offices and disrupted some hospitals. The 24- hour stoppage hit ferry lines at Piraeus, Greece’s largest port

9,000 people protesting in Athens, a city of 745,000, isn't that much. It's a far cry from the monster protests earlier this year where three people were killed. For the most part, it seems limited to the government workers.

“It’s the usual routine,” said Elina Zaroulia, 25, who does fashion public relations for Hugo Boss in Athens and didn’t join strikers today. “Protesters, banners, slogans, but if you work in the private sector you go to work, it’s the way it is and definitely now that it is a time of crisis.”

In the end, the protestors lost out and the real work of accepting the consequences of borrowing too much money has begun.

“Striking is an irremovable right of the Greek people and of every worker, but we are steadily doing our job,” government spokesman George Petalotis said in an e-mailed transcript of comments made in Athens yesterday. Reforms must be pushed through “as the situation had really reached its limits.”

Pension reforms include increasing the retirement age to 65 from 60 for women, curtailing early retirement, increasing the number of contribution years and calculating payments over a longer period of employment. The bill will be the first enacted since the May 6 package that pledged 30 billion euros of wage and pension cuts and tax increases over the next three years.

Doomsayers (of which I was one) neglect the ability of people to do what needs to be done when crises occur.

We doomsayers are an arrogant lot. We think that we are the only ones who can see the approaching destruction and we sneer at the average person's ignorance. For a time, it may be that a doomsayer is alone and correct in their vision of the future, but in the end, if the problem really existed, we doomsters are joined by the majority and the problems get solved.

Geeze, dude, get over yourself.