General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Joseph Stiglitz to Greece’s Creditors: Abandon Austerity Or Face Global Fallout [View all]freshwest
(53,661 posts)The EU doesn't want a caliphate to grow on one side or the bear in a position to put the screws to them. Both could entail military actions which bankrupt nations. The creators of the EU knew this and sought to avoid it happening again.
The UK gave up control of most of its empire after WW2. It was bankrupt and could not afford its former place on the world stage. The European mainland was in far worse condition.
Greece's EU issues are about more than money. Its instability politically and its poverty prior to entering the EU, threatened the EU. Grexit does the same.
This is a staring contest that in the end will only benefit those positioned to make a killing, like Putin in contracts and extorting policies to fit his intentions, and Turkey and other nations of the Arab realm sending their populations into Greece to re-instate a caliphate in all but name, without a shot fired, despite the wars between Greece and the Ottomans.
FDR knew the real cost of poverty was instability and demagoguery, and Greece has seen plenty of that in recent years. It has been and it is, a threat to the EU social order, which is why it's been given so much leeway.
The Greeks have yet to bring their 1% under control with taxation and despite calls for a pure socialist system advocated by popular leaders, seems to have no more real plans it can implement it than Maduro. He has fallen under the pressure of the Boligarchs of VZ and can't break free of them. I doubt the 'saviors' of humanity touted to us as Greece's salvation are willing to confront such power.
I've read also that the culture of Greece and other nations do not find anything wrong with this way of doing things. So any real change is impossible and this is a problem in creating a unified Europe and peace.
JMHO.