Democracy: A corpse walking ?

“The worst thing in the world next to anarchy is government.” Henry Ward Beecher
Bloggers post what they claim to be the “scariest economic chart” or the ”chart of the century.” Indeed, many data sets are frightening, but none more so than the one to the left. Modern government has failed. These countries are insolvent and will default.
Jagadeesh Gokhale compiled these figures on European debt. This data shows incontrovertibly that all western democracies are on death row. The unlimited welfare state is the cause. Some governments are delusional, believing they can continue on their present paths. Others cling irrationally to hopes of some miraculous reprieve. All are dead men walking.
Government has always been inefficient and mostly ineffective. For most of history that was inconsequential, because governments had limited roles. Monarchies and various forms of authoritarianism had no reason to buy votes. That changed when participative government was instituted. The dangers of participative government devolving into democracy were well understood:
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” – Alexander Fraser Tytler, 18th century Historian and Jurist
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” – John Adams
In the 1880s Otto von Bismark instituted the first welfare state. Other governments followed with varying time lags. The Progressive Era in the US created the Federal Reserve and the Federal Income Tax, both in 1913. They provided powers never intended by the Constitution. In the late 1930s the US started a social security system, the last developed country to do so.
Once democracy was unleashed, citizens voted themselves benefits. Keynesian economics assisted politicians in their quest for votes. James Buchanan and Richard Wagner observed in Democracy in Deficit:
“With the completion of the Keynesian revolution, these time-tested principles of fiscal responsibility were consigned to the heap of superstitious nostrums that once stifled enlightened political-fiscal activism.”
The last barrier to fiscal irresponsibility was removed in 1971 with the introduction of universal fiat currency. In the last 50 years, the US has not had a true surplus. Keynes’ theory, which envisioned deficits in slow economies offset by surpluses otherwise, was co-opted by the political classes. In less than seventy-five years, all welfare states were insolvent. The graphic below depicts government debt to GDP ratios around the world

Quote by Dave__Notts
Holds hands up as well, I am waiting for neilin-notin-backin-movedin-movedout-donethehokeykokey-backin-leeds to explain it in simple English.
Until then I just look at it with a blank expression........and three times I have read it so far
Dave_Notts

Quote by JTS
I'll reproduce the chart that is on the url on the first post, below.
I read through it several times (well, more than that).
The gist of the blog is that the welfare benefits are now out-of-hand.
Britain seems not too bad, until you look at the pension obligation as a percentage of GDP Poland looks really frightening....
I think it means that we have spent ourselves into trouble....oh well, belt-tightening time !