Fears rise of Greece rescue plan falling short
Financial Times: A Euro 45 billion emergency rescue package is being set up for Athens, but doubts are being raised as to whether it will be enough.
Prabhupada, July 12, 1976, New York: How is that? In America, city, New York, they cannot pay?
Hari-sauri: New York almost went bankrupt.
Devotee (1): They have mismanaged the whole thing.
Paramahamsa: In the newspaper yesterday there was an article about New York City. The city government is going bankrupt because they… They have asked the President for 1,500 million dollars in emergency aid. Because of crime and dirtiness and noise, all the rich people are leaving New York, and they can’t get any taxes from the poor people. So they don’t have money to pay to run the city.
Prabhupada: Yes. I have seen. New York is very dilapidated, many quarters. And especially Second Avenue, those are very dirty. The… On the Fifth Avenue, that Central Park is also very dirty. This civilization will collapse. It cannot be run on. Fourth-class men, I tell. Because it is conducted by the fourth-class men. Ask that gentleman why they are asking. Are they not fourth-class men? They could not manage?
Srutakirti: That man last night admitted. He said, “Now I must leave and do my fourth-class activities.”
Prabhupada: Yes, that is fourth class. This is the proof. Fourth-class men administering… Just like misadministration not immediately detected. After some time, when the case is unmanageable, it is detected. Therefore fourth-class men. Simply these Western people, they know how to earn money by hook and crook. So, so long the money is there it is covered, the fourth-class men. And when the money is finished, they are exposed, fourth-class men. They’re simply covered by money. No social structure, no spiritual understanding, no character, nothing of the sort.
Hari-sauri: They had big strikes last year or early this year. They wouldn’t clear the garbage away, and the whole city was piled up with garbage everywhere.
Devotee (2): Srimad-Bhagavatam says in this Kali-yuga they are all lazy, misguided.
Prabhupada: So much drinking, they must be lazy.
Devotee (1): Yes.
Prabhupada: So much drinking excessively. Drinking means laziness.
Ramesvara: Also the banks, they loan the city money, but at a very high interest rate. So then the city cannot afford it.
Hari-sauri: People nowadays are so filled with intoxications they are not fit to do anything.
Ramesvara: They loan the city money at a very high interest rate, so in order to pay it back they have to borrow more money.
Prabhupada: Dried up on account of being detached from the original bark. Similarly, as soon as any civilization detached from God consciousness, they’ll dry up.
Devotee (1): Simply buildings and cement, that is their culture.
Bali-mardana: Except for India, no civilization has lasted very long.
Prabhupada: No, cannot last.
Hari-sauri: And as soon as they started to give up their culture in India, they’re also dried up.
Prabhupada: They’ll dry. That is the nature’s way. Harav abhaktasya kuto mahad-gunah. Anyone detached from God consciousness, he has no qualification. Manorathena. Their only qualification is mental concoction. That’s all. Just see, how this… In America, such a wretched man. Willfully. Willfully.
Devotee (1): They’ve become useless.
Prabhupada: This is due to excessive meat-eating, intoxication, sex. This is the result.
Devotee (1): They’ve wasted their brains.
Hari-sauri: Also these bums that hang around the cities, they’re all alcoholics.
Prabhupada: That is the reason.
Devotee (3): That’s one reason crime is so high is because of intoxication.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Devotee (3): Always increasing crime.
Ramesvara: In America, millions of people have guns in their houses. Very common. They are all preparing for fighting.
Hari-sauri: You said once in the Srimad-Bhagavatam that the one principle that gives the most trouble is the fearing in the material world.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Ramesvara: So whenever the Congress tries to pass a law to control the purchasing of guns, it is always defeated. They want the people to be able to have guns. They make a lot of money, also, selling guns.
Prabhupada: The best thing is they should be educated to become gentlemen. Keep guns, but they may not improperly use them.
Ramesvara: When New York City had to start borrowing money from the banks, the banks became very powerful. They were able to control the city government and get many favors.
Prabhupada: What is that favor?
Ramesvara: They get special contracts, concession rates, and they are able to get their men appointed to important government positions. Also, in the national government, the government of the United States has to always borrow money from banks. There is something called National Debt. Hundreds of billions of dollars they owe the banks, the United States government, to support all their different programs.
Prabhupada: National Debt.
Ramesvara: National Debt. So then the banks are able to use their power to get favors. “Oh, you want to borrow money? Then you must give me some favor.” It’s common knowledge.
Hari-sauri: Everyone’s trying to blackmail everyone else.
Ramesvara: Some people say that there is a worldwide conspiracy of bankers, that they can control any government. They can cause a depression. They say that the bankers caused the depression in the 1920s, 1930s, just to increase their power.
Prabhupada: Yes. As soon as you become dependent on me, I pay money, you can create some trouble for me. That is conspiracy.
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