Scary

CNBC has a poll up asking readers: “Should the Cyprus Deposit Levy be Scrapped?”:

Cyprus’s bailout, is the first one in the four-year old euro zone debt crisis to penalize savers, via a deposit levy.

Under the bail-in as it’s called, savers will get equity in the bank in return for a levy of 9.9 percent on accounts above 100,000 euros and 6.75 percent on accounts below that.

The move has been severely criticized for harshly confiscating money from ordinary savers, many of whom rushed to ATMs over the weekend to withdraw cash.

Here’s the scary part: the poll they put up for readers has over 30% of respondents saying that no, it should not be scrapped or they don’t know (so far, maybe this will change). Seriously? People always say that things like this will not happen here. But when I see polls like the following, I sometimes wonder when 30 something percent will become 51 percent:

Should the Cyprus Deposit Levy Be Scrapped?
Yes, completely
67%
67%
No, keep it
15%
15%
Keep it, but modify it
11%
11%
Don’t know, can’t say
7%
7%
Total Votes: 1738

How many times have you thought to yourself that it can’t happen here when you hear about some atrocity in another country? We should realize that with human nature, anything is possible, both for good and for evil.