Last week, the Greek government voted to severely reduce spending in order to win favor with its creditors and secure another round of bailouts. The move was intended to ensure that Greece could continue to borrow money and not default on its obligations. Economists, of which I am not, feared a collapse in Greece would trigger bank failures throughout Europe and deepen the worldwide, economic recession.

The new austerity measures, however, have not been well received by the Greek citizens. Many have taken to the streets in violent protest. They feel they have sacrificed enough after an earlier bill already cut public sector jobs, lowered pensions, and raised the retirement age from 61 to 65. Unemployment has also risen to over 16 percent.

The fiscal problems rocking Greece were not sudden; the country has a lengthy history of spending beyond its means. For half of the last 179 years, Greece has been in default. Mark Blyth, professor of international political economics at Brown University, says, “The Greeks have been lying about their budget deficit for years; they haven't been paying their taxes for years.” When the global recession hit, says Blyth, "We've found that everyone was swimming naked when the tide went out."

Some who are watching the drama in Greece wonder if the United States, with its record-breaking deficits, might be next. Fareed Zakaria, editor-at-large for Time Magazine, argues that the Greek and American economies are apples and oranges. There are, however, important lessons the United States can learn from what we are witnessing in Greece.

What both Greece and the United States have in common is a profound lack of maturity. Psychiatrists define maturity as the ability to delay gratification. M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled, writes, “Delaying gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with. It is the only decent way to live.” The riots in Athens might be interpreted as a collective temper tantrum by a citizenry unaccustomed to sacrifice.

For decades, the Greeks have borrowed money to pay for inflated wages, benefits, and early retirement. Compounding the problem was a government in denial that apparently “cooked the books” in order to avoid the painful economic realities and to keep the citizens placated. As a result, the pain now being forced upon the Greek people is worse than if they had accepted it incrementally over the previous three decades. Instead, they opted for short-term pleasure rather than long-term prosperity--the very definition of immaturity.

Sadly, we can see similar trends at work in the United States. President Obama’s inaugural address called upon the nation to exhibit a “new era of responsibility.” That is an ambitious call in a society gripped by consumerism, a worldview that, according to one economist, celebrates “perpetual adolescence.” Still the President made his appeal: “We remain a young nation,” he said, “but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.”

He spoke of reducing deficits and smarter government spending. He also promised to reform the largely unregulated investment banking industry that created the housing bubble, which sparked the global recession. But these problems remain unaddressed, and in some cases have worsened, with only symbolic changes passing Congress to appease constituencies on both sides of the aisle.

“The great truth facing the U.S.,” says Zakaria, “is not that we lack solutions to our problems but that our political system seems unable to do anything.” Our politicians seem unwilling to make the painful but necessary decisions to lead us to long-term, sustainable prosperity. The reason? Democrats don’t win elections by cutting spending, and Republicans don’t win elections by raising taxes. Americans, much like the Greeks, do not have a culture that values delayed gratification. Compounding the problem is a political system that dispenses rewards and punishments on short two and four year cycles--hardly conducive for fostering maturity.

Ultimately, the painful austerity measures in Greece and the resulting riots must cause us to pause and examine our own values. How have we allowed the puerile values of consumerism to shape our behaviors--both individually and nationally? Are we practicing the very biblical value of delayed gratification in our households, our churches, our communities? And when we enter the voting booth, are we assessing our elected representatives merely by the short-term pleasures they promise (tax-cuts and lock box entitlements), or will we reward the women and men who go to Washington with the maturity to see beyond the next election cycle and make harder, even painful, decisions?

President Obama was right in his inaugural address--it is time to put aside childish ways (1 Cor. 13:11). But was anybody listening?

Editor's Note: The header image was used from here.

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