No longer the stoic people of old, they are whiney and weak. And without honor. Accepting loan after loan and never seeking to repay, just refinance after extension after extension again.
How sad, really. No heroes. They need heroes.
$200,000,000,000? They want two hundred billion? Their entire economy isn't worth that much.
The sad thing about Greek politics is that the whiniest political party is the one that always gets the most votes. It sells to the electorate, who perennially have their hands outstretched, palms up.
Gimmee, gimmee.
Each political party hires party loyalists, packing them in to government jobs, doling out public money to trade unions in order to perpetuate themselves in power.
The EU itself is squeezing the life out of little Greece; they have culpability, too, but I blame the debtor much more than the lendor.
The Greeks retire at age 57, the Germans at 67. The Germans are aware of this, have commented on it, and are tired of playing the part of creditor--financing bad loan after bad loan so their happy-go-lucky debtors can live carefree lives.
Sounds eerily like what we are becoming.
What happened to the Greeks of old? To the Egyptians of old? To the Romans? The same thing that happens to many thriving civilizations.
Their best people left. When a civilization reaches a peak, it gets an oligarchy increasingly controlling the center. The bright and ambitious people leave for frontiers where they can prosper out from under the thumbs of the controlling oligarchy. Greeks left Greece to found colonies elsewhere, like Italy. Romans went to the fringes of the Empire, like Britain. Brits sought their fortunes in America.
Greek retirement paid by German workers!