Nope, good god whats with the shallow thinking? Greece's fiscal system was just poor and they're paying the price now. Western Europe has a solid system in place. What makes you think Germany will befall the same?

You look at some of the creditors for Greece and you see many of them have their own huge debts. The net contributor to many economies seems to be China so what happens when ultimately we can't pay back China. There not known for their fair play or honest behaviour. They are not a democracy.

So much debt going around the world but in the detail there are only a few countries without any real level of debt themselves.

Everyone wants to live a fantastic life with great health care, decent policing, benefits for all even if the country itself can not earn the level of money to pay for it.

Surely better to live within your means and prioritise what is important. I.e. don't tax food, healthcare, education, service sector etc but do tax heavily luxury items and non essentials.

People should understand that a well run successful economy is the only way their lives can be improved not through debt.

so we should be fine with historic low taxes for the 1%ers and less and less social benefits for the rest?

They haven't actually defaulted yet. They're in arrears because they missed an IMF payment, but the definition of a default is misding payments on debt credited by private investors. Now let's see if Greece can pay back the 2 billion € payment to the private investors that's due 15th of july. My bet is they can't, but until that happens they have NOT defaulted, and if media says otherwise it's to get those valuable clicks. If they vote yes in the referendum they will get a bailout, but the "sanctions" to get the Greek economy up and running (who the hell has made it what it is now?) will be enforced with an iron fist.

The 2008 crisis shows obviously that what you said is not true. Just because Western Europe is okay right now does not mean it will be okay even a month from now. Greece is just an extreme case of what is going on in most of Western Europe, some Asian countries, and the U.S. Unsustainable debt and crony governement spending to their friendly contractors. That almost every European country and the U.S had bailed out the malinvested banks and corporations after the 2008 crisis is proof that they had learned nothing and that even more bubbles are going to bust.

Great post. the only way out of destitution is through productive activity not borrowing from others whom you don't plan to pay back. This is obvious for individuals, but apparently not governments.

yes and no, not paying the IMF yet strictly speaking isn't a default. BUT it triggers ones as the ECB and IMF have frozen further funding for the banks which mean they can no longer pay debts, default should occur well before 15th July if they don't find more funding, the 2 billion on 15th is just a final nail in the coffin.

.....Unless they vote yes in the referendum and this gets emergency economic support from the EU.

Must be a hard time for the greeks now

It may be questionable whether they stay solvent till the result of the referendum is in. last details I saw (last week) were they due to the continued exodus of money the banks would only last 4-5 days, the referendum is right on that 5 day limit so it would be touch and go even if they could secure funding post referendum.