[longtermmemmory]

you are not considering the actual wages.

450 euros A MONTH is the minumum wage.

The euro inflation is what caused many problems over every day items.

This is going to get ugly, remember also the real crisis is spain. Greece is just a test and a place reporters go on an expense account.

[Kenny Bunk]

Spain and especially Italy, are much richer, because they are much more industrialized and agriculturally productive than Greece, which is really a pretty small place with a numerically small population.

So, althought they are in huge trouble, Spain and Italy have a much better financial cushion. What enabled Greece to foolishly enlarge its public sector was the many years they were on the Euro-dole, along with Portugal and Ireland. They received huge yearly subsidies from the EU, which according to plan then stopped. Ireland made the best use of the money in improving infrastructure and education and was ready (sort of) for the cut-off.. Portugal and Greece used their free money to make things worse!