Nice work if you can get it - Greece

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Greece starts firing civil servants for first time in a century
Pushed by its European creditors amid its crippling economic crisis, Greece began this week to do something it hasn't done in more than 100 years: fire public-sector workers en masse.

Following weeks of tough negotiations with its lenders � the "troika" of the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, and the European Central Bank � the Greek government started laying off public-sector workers in an effort to implement the austerity that the troika has demanded. The first two civil servants were let go on Wednesday under a new law that speeds up the process � one, a policeman, for stealing debit cards, and the other for 110 days of unexcused absence.

Like I said, nice work if you can get it. More:

Civil servants� jobs have been protected by a law that dates back to the 1880s, which became enshrined in the century-old Greek constitution. Until that provision became law, each newly elected government would sack the civil servants hired by the previous government to replace them with their own party members, creating civil unrest and a dysfunctional state.

�The logic [behind this law] was that the public administration has to be politically independent, feel secure, and ensure the state�s continuity,� said Dimitris Charalambis, professor of political science at the University of Athens.

Even though the 19th-century law was initially intended to fight nepotism, it caused its own problem: Each successive government hired its own people, adding to a continually expanding civil service without making the public sector any more effective. As a result, the Greek public sector became infamous for being dysfunctional and bureaucratic.

Further, although the law had allowed the firing of civil servants convicted of misappropriation of public funds and other serious crimes or when their jobs are phased out, the civil servants were still guaranteed a right to appeal. The appeal process could take two to three years, during which they were able to remain at work.

The law was changed last November to speed up the appeal process and suspend civil servants charged with crimes. A separate effort today to remove the appeal entirely was blocked by the justice minister as unconstitutional, however.

Sounds like the roadmap for the Democratic Party -- it is sad that people do not look at the trainwreck of other cultures and realize that this is where we are heading in five years. We will become Greece if we do not change our government and get the professionally entitled off the dole.