Thomas Piketty: “Germany has never repaid.”

Debt cuts are one thing, but I see no reason to believe that there's a wide enough acceptance for a EU-wide fiscal policy to go along with the unified monetary policy. I might see France and Germany going along with that (mostly because it'll basically be their policy), but the UK won't have none of it -- and I don't think the PIIGS states would accept it either.

On the other hand, if things keep going wrong, people might just be forced to accept this as a fact, I just hope it won't be too late by then.

The poor don't get taxed if the special tax is progressive (or non-existent at lower levels of income/wealth). Of course, the argument that such a tax being effective is impossible these days due to contemporary mobility of wealth may well be true. That still doesn't amount to a special tax on the poor, and I'm sure you realize Piketty wouldn't advocate for that, whether or not you agree with his positions.

How do you go from "tax on private wealth" to "tax on the poor"?

The countries that were the Allied powers are in no position to call out Germany for not repaying its debts after the second world war because they originated from the way the Allied powers handled the money situation during and after the Great War.

Look at this quote:

> We cannot demand that new generations must pay for decades for the mistakes of their parents. The Greeks have, without a doubt, made big mistakes. Until 2009, the government in Athens forged its books. But despite this, the younger generation of Greeks carries no more responsibility for the mistakes of its elders than the younger generation of Germans did in the 1950s and 1960s. We need to look ahead. Europe was founded on debt forgiveness and investment in the future. Not on the idea of endless penance. We need to remember this.

In my opinion, this economist just wants to be the next Finance Minister for Greece. If the "older generation" (and I don't know how we can call what happened until six years ago a different generation but we'll let that slide) forged books, then cut them off. Cut their pensions. Cut their retirements. Make them come back to work. You can't blame the "older generation" and still let them retire at 50.

It is incredibly insensitive to blame the German victims of the Versailles Treaty. Do people blame Germany for France's greed? I mean it is pretty evident that the growth of Nazis in Germany came directly from what the Allies levied on Germany.

Moreover, to say that the situation in 2008-09 was equivalent to the horrors that people faced before and during the second world is nothing short of rewriting history. I don't think the people who lived through the great depression would take very kindly of statements like:

> To deny the historical parallels to the postwar period would be wrong. Let’s think about the financial crisis of 2008/2009. This wasn’t just any crisis. It was the biggest financial crisis since 1929. So the comparison is quite valid. This is equally true for the Greek economy: between 2009 and 2015, its GDP has fallen by 25%. This is comparable to the recessions in Germany and France between 1929 and 1935.

With all that being said, I must agree with him in one key point:

> A restructuring of all debt, not just in Greece but in several European countries, is inevitable.

Eurozone must stick together. However, the Greeks must realize a compromise consists of a give and take. They must seek answers from those who were in power in Athens before 2009.

In hindsight, even organizing the 2004 Olympics was a horrible idea. But then hindsight is 20/20.

There are multiple ponzi schemes here: first and foremost the very idea of nations (victim: the individuals), then that of centrally issued money (victim: the individuals), then that of a regional zone of political unity built upon these established ponzi schemes (victim: the individual's already questionable right to self-determination through their 'nations'), and finally that of the global economy' incorporating other major examples such systems - chiefly the US and China (victim: the planet).

One can scream "debt must be repaid!" while running limited liability companies that can declare bankruptcy and allow them to walk away, in countries where political will can be bought on the open market, and media is openly dominated and subtly influenced by corporate and political contributions and donations, all while the global environment suffers and we are soon to have serious issues meeting even our basic human needs like fresh air and water. One may even consider oneself to be 'right' in doing so, however, one is also ignorant of a wider truth.

What we really need here are some proposals for alternatives, and some people willing to try them - such as Greece.