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Oh, no, I didn't forget that. I'm quite sure that a revolt would strengthen their myths.

But it might avert a total humanitarian disaster if it happens soon enough.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Sat Feb 16th, 2013 at 04:11:39 AM EST
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Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.
by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sat Feb 16th, 2013 at 04:52:24 AM EST
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Well, indeed.
That's the horror that refusal to reassess your fantasies under any circumstance tend to lead to. I am not, by nature, inclined to wish for revolution, but I also reckon that if you give an entire people no option other than violence, quite a few will choose it.

And I would find it hard to blame them when they do.

I know you've covered that extensively recently.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Sat Feb 16th, 2013 at 05:20:57 AM EST
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For that matter, a complete humanitarian catastrophe is at this stage no longer avoidable. It's been what? Four years by now? Interpolating from the Russian experience with austerity, you'd expect austerity to kill around one percent of your population over a decade. Depending on how you estimate and how you count causes of death, austerity-related complications are probably the third or fourth leading cause of death in Greece over the course of the present depression.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sat Feb 16th, 2013 at 10:35:16 AM EST
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Yes, I'm aware of that. I just fear it could get much worse than what's already there.

The 1% over a decade is probably back-loaded so we haven't seen much of it yet. Plus the impact in Greece could end up being bigger than in Russia.


Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Sat Feb 16th, 2013 at 12:51:25 PM EST
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Even if excess mortality increases linearly (meaning that five years of austerity would give only a quarter of the aggregate excess fatalities of ten years), that would still make austerity the third or fourth leading cause of death (after cardiovascular conditions, cancer and maybe infectious disease) over the course of the present depression.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sat Feb 16th, 2013 at 02:41:49 PM EST
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