So, was that it?

For those of you who are still having a bit of difficulty shifting back from personal to political mode, hang onto your hats, I need to make the shift again. What we wouldn't put up with on a personal level, what we realize is simply unfair, if not immoral, at a nation-state level, is still going on every day. It's not making things around the world any better, but what is going on says a lot about us as people.

I don't know how many of you have ever been to Greece, but I highly recommend it. The country itself is simply beautiful, the weather is grand most of the year, and the people are among the most friendly and warm-hearted that you'll run into anywhere. Just like anywhere else, there are good folks and some not so good. In many regards the Greeks are just like you and me. They're not sloppy, lazy, or deceitful. They love their families and would like nothing more than to see they live happy and healthy lives. Unfortunately, they are being victimized through no fault of their own (other than they happen to live there. Here's why I say that.

When the whole financial crisis with Greece started, they had a public debt level of about 165% of GDP. In came the banks, and particularly the IMF, told them they had to get their stuff together or no one would help them. The political tug-of-war began. In the meantime, the banks and IMF have been forcing the country to privatize where possible, sell off public assets, so to speak, they cut the salaries of all their civil servants, teachers, security and rescue personnel, and they cut earned pension benefits for their seniors; they have eliminated their healthcare system. On top of this, the richer, lender countries have poured several trillion dollars into the country as well, and now, after all of that they are being threatened with begin thrown out of the euro zone and too many outside nations are back to pointing figures at the lazy, screwed-up Greeks. The problem is that even with all the saving, the austerity, the pressure from above, their debt is now at 197% of GDP. How is that possible?

It's possible when you don't want to help, when you don't want to really do business, but when all you want is money. The banks, who received untold billions in bailouts for outright criminal behavior, now have the audacity to demand of others what they were not willing to do themselves. You don't have to be a financial expert to know that debt is being used here as a cudgel. We're allowing the Greeks to be beaten to death by supposed upright, honest institutions. They're not. And by not speaking out against them and by not pushing to have them back off or be shut down, we are simply accomplices to the crimes.