Yeah, that's right. They were "forced" to borrow to provide benefits that they could not pay for out of taxes. Is that why the US is borrowing to pay for benefits too? Because we were "forced" to?
“They were “forced” to borrow to provide benefits that they could not pay for “
You nailed the logical leap in the victim argument. No one forced them to borrow money. They were spendthrifts, living beyond their means - just like someone running up their credit cards into bankruptcy.
Freeper buwaya (post 12) pointed out that Greek productivity has not grown as fast as the Germans: “Greeks had massive obstacles and inefficiencies built in to their economic system, inefficiency and corruption throughout the bureaucracy”.
Those are the reasons that Greece is bankrupt. Great access to credit was an opportunity that most poor countries don’t get. Greece squandered it with a bunch of misguided left-wing economic policies that hampered growth, and cheap political tactics - using borrowed money to buy votes, and leaving the mess for others to clean up.