Some large Amercian cities -- San Fran comes to mind, Chicago maybe just as much -- are microcosms of countries like Greece. Enormous government payrolls locked up in union contracts, massive social regimes from which a large part of the population either draws upon or derives job security, and a corrupt and labyrinthine tax system.
Not really. San Francisco and Chicago are governed just as badly as some third-world kleptocracies, but those cities fortunately have relatively little general obligation debt (proportionally much less than Greece). Eventually they will probably declare bankruptcy and repudiate their ridiculous union contracts.
