‘IT’S LIKE CHRISTMAS’: WEALTHY GREEKS GO ON SPENDING SPREE FOR APPLE GADGETS AND JEWELLERY AS THEY FEAR THEY’LL LOSE CASH WHEN BANKS COLLAPSE:
Wealthy Greeks have embarked on a luxury spending spree amid fears the government will raid their bank accounts to help pay the national debt.
Jewellery, computer and electrical goods store reported record summer sales in the lead up to and following the EU bail-out referendum on Sunday which has put Athens at odds with Berlin and Brussels.
Greeks fear will the EU will force their government to impose a ‘haircut’ on their bank accounts, taking a percentage of depositor’s savings as a one-off tax, in a move similar to conditions imposed on Cyprus following their own financial crisis in 2013.
One shop assistant described the recent shopping spree as like ‘Christmas’.
Which adds a Continental twist that dovetails nicely with P.J. O’Rourke’s observation a quarter century ago in – appropriately enough — Parliament of Whores that “I have only one firm belief about the American political system, and that is this: God is a Republican and Santa Claus is a Democrat:”
God is an elderly or, at any rate, middle aged male, a stern fellow, patriarchal rather than paternal and a great believer in rules and regulations. He holds men accountable for their actions. He has little apparent concern for the material well being of the disadvantaged. He is politically connected, socially powerful and holds the mortgage on literally everything in the world. God is difficult. God is unsentimental. It is very hard to get into God’s heavenly country club.
Santa Claus is another matter. He’s cute. He’s nonthreatening. He’s always cheerful. And he loves animals. He may know who’s been naughty and who’s been nice, but he never does anything about it. He gives everyone everything they want without the thought of quid pro quo. He works hard for charities, and he’s famously generous to the poor. Santa Claus is preferable to God in every way but one: There is no such thing as Santa Claus.
In Europe, Nietzsche and his fellow “bearded God Killers” finished Him off by the end of the 19th century. And in postwar Greece, Nietzsche’s Last Men have done their best in the years since to finish off what remains of the European welfare state. As Mark Steyn warned a decade ago, “The hyper-rationalism of post-Christian Europe turns out to be wholly irrational: what’s the point of creating a secular utopia if it’s only for one generation?”
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