The Greek patient - So what do we do now?

When I think about all the time, money, energy, and, well, lives that have gone into this ... I'm not sure what to call it ... charade (?), this burlesque (?), this whatever-you-want-to-call-it ... I can assure you, I'm anything but happy. To be truthful, it simply turns my stomach.

Oh, I know, I know, the world isn't all that nice a place and nasty things happen all the time, but you'd think that after almost a million years of human history, we would have learned something. You'd especially think that in light of what we know about how badly all this money-grubbing and resource-grabbing turned out, we'd be a bit more cautious today. But we aren't. We're still playing stupid games that are costing real people their lives and their livelihoods. You'll forgive me if I'm less than enthusiastic about support for what's going on.

You should know that I think that the EU is far from perfect. I am a big fan of the idea of Europe – that much is certain – but I'm not a big fan of the EU as it's being implemented today. I believe we've been called to do better, and in order to do so, we – and by that I mean you and me and your neighbor and my neighbor ... everyday people, that is – have to become more involved and make ourselves heard. There are lots of good ideas around, and it's time we started putting some of them to work. As for the Greek patient, well, here are my suggestions for his recovery:

1. The Americans have nothing here that is theirs. It's time for them to go home or bother someone else (though I'm in favor of the former). They should get their own house in order before telling other folks how they ought to be living.
2. The IMF should be sent home. This fits in with #1. It's an American organization, and I can't begin to imagine what business it has being involved in anything internal to Europe.
3. The Greeks should be given a say in their destiny. We all agree – hell, even the Greeks that I've spoken with agree – that they need to get their fiscal house in order, but they should decide who should help and they should invite those whom they trust in to help them.
4. The Greeks should use their natural wealth to pay off those creditors who perhaps deserve to be paid off. Some of those creditors are mere exploiters and they are free to made downward adjustments as appropriate.
5. The Greeks should play a suitable role in deciding how their resources and their wealth can help Europe as a whole prosper. (In this point, there's a whole lot of rethinking to be done.) They have the means and, with some assistance, the wherewithal to ensure that Europe can actually start becoming a reality.
6. The EU must become more democratic, devolving a lot of the current power held by the EC to the European Parliament, but as a transition to a more reasonable form of governance for the 21st century.
7. The EU has the opportunity, and therefore should take it, to reorganize their money business. It's time to place our fiscal future on a new foundation. It is time to opt out of the purely fiat currency malaise that plagues the world. They could set an example for how money itself can be made more democratic so that wealth is more equitably distributed than it is now and so that everyone, not a select few, benefit when it grows.

These are merely broad-brush suggestions, of course, but in each and every one of them is an opportunity to make sensible, positive changes to business-as-usual. Will the world become perfect as a result? Absolutely not. But, in doing so, we increase the chances that there will even be a world left to leave to our children.

Think about it.