The deep financial crisis in Greece is a good time to start meaningful reform of strategies, policies, culture and business practices that lead to the current demise. It is also a historic moment to end the 20 year campaign by Greece to delegitimise its neighbour the Republic of Macedonia and prevent it from joining NATO and the EU because of an absurd dispute over Macedonian's legitimate identity. The financial problems and the political problems in Greece were made by irresponsible politicians who lacked the vision and capacity to lead the Greek people to economic prosperity and peaceful coexistence with its neighbours in Southeast Europe including Turkey. Europe must demand better leaders and better policies in Greece. Macedonia also deserves to be liberated from the destructive power that ultra-nationalists in Greece have in the EU, NATO which is preventing enlargement and stability in these institutions. Australia should also review its unsustainable policy on Macedonia and stop hiding behind the the UN resolution of 1993 which is illegal and without precedent in UN history.

Isn’t racism a funny thing? We are unceasingly told that it is utterly wrong to prejudge, label, and stereotype entire groups of people, but then we never notice when somebody like Jonathon Ariel does the same thing by praising the Germans for being “hard working, thrifty, productive, and economically literate.”

It is obvious that nobody objects when you make positive appraisals about entire groups of people, it is only “racism” when you make negative appraisals. This is something that I will not accept.

If the Germans are thrifty and hard working, why is it “racist” and wrong (and against the laws of NSW) to say that the Greeks are profligate with their money and lazy? It is intellectually dishonest and totally illogical to claim that entire racial, national, ethnic, and religious groups are above general criticism.

LEGO
Many Greeks came to Australia in the 60s and 70s and worked hard as families to build up farms and businesses. They were certainly not seen as being lazy, often working longer hours in the local fish and chip shops (where I grew up anyway).

As for the article: The solution to the Greek problem will probably be the same as was seen in the US, that is paying social welfare to the banks while they kick people out of their homes who can no longer afford to pay their mortgages. More bandaid and back end solutions that do not address the flaws in unfettered capitalism including the management and distribution of resources.

*that do not address the flaws in unfettered capitalism*

Nothing to do with capitalism Pelican, everything to do with
feelgood socialist politics as you promote it.

Hire lots of public servants, dont' worry about any kind
of efficiency, borrow more money, fudge the figures a bit
to win the next election and eventually you have disaster.

Yabby unfettered capitalism just doesn't work. How many GFCs does it take to draw those conclusions?

Big government is not what I am proposing - I have seen enough bloated PS departments to know that much of it is crud and the real service end of the PS is often the first to be depleted.

Nothing to do with Left policies or Right policies it is bureacratism and self-serving leadership within governments that perpetuate these problems. The Coalition was worse with growth in middle class welfare and handouts to the corporate sector and the ALP worse in deliving programs successfully to the public without addressing rorting and failing to get a set price on services.

Better government (for people) not bigger government. I can fully see that however you fail to see the other side of the problem - the influence of the corporate sector (including corruption).

However you are not alone - and that is why I reckon it will take a few more crises or possibly wars over food and other resources before the penny will drop. I always hope humans will come to some enlightenment before crises emerge but sadly it is not always the case.

To fix is easy in theory yet almost impossible in practice.
Let bad investments fail, minimise the profits of unproductive "industries" like banking and trading in "assets" that don't exist, also return real wages to real workers. We have a generation of super wealthy being supported by the declining middle classes and public largesse. Is ending welfare for the wealthy *really* that hard? (A. Yes! Look at Aussie bankers, miners and oil companies.)
Time to kick the money changer parasites out...again. It seems to be needed every few hundred years!