[omgyeah]

I wish you won't ever see the consequence of dire actions against you or your family. You have no idea how it feels like. You have no idea how unfair it is.

In case that you have not realized it, you are not paying any money. You are loaning with loan-shark rates. Have you ever heard of a loan-shark losing money?

Things are much more complicated than black or white.

Greece and Cyprus are not independent countries. Their very existence was built on loan. Loan with a purpose. And this purpose fulfills as we speak.

These countries' sovereignty is more than a joke, more than a century old.

You feel cheated. Greeks (people living in Cyprus are also Greeks) feel cheated. Every single person feels cheated.

Sadly, we live in the dystopian future where international mega-corporations (a.k.a banks) have more power than some countries.

You can however blame the rotten democratic system that we live by. You can blame human kind's greedy nature.

But you can't blame people of being stupid. The society can only be evaluated by the way it treats its weakest members. You can't blame stupid. You must protect them. This is what makes a society virtuous. Protecting its weakest links. Everything else is pure low-level greediness instinct that has driven us from living into caves to the modern world.

If thinking that poor nations had it coming helps you keep your conscious clean, so be it.

But it has always been about survival of the fittest and not survival of everybody and apparently it will keep being this way. Until human kind becomes one. Above races, religions, borders and whatever.

Amen :)

[st0p]

>> In case that you have not realized it, you are not paying any money.

O yes I am. I'm paying taxes here to keep your economy afloat. I don't mind that, but I'm not going to respond all of the rest you posted.

[omgyeah]

OK. I agree with you. And I am paying money to keep your economy afloat.

Can you see how stupid this is?

Little guys fight each other. And the winner gets eaten by the big guy (= bank).

[st0p]

I can't agree with your last sentence. We've all had the profits of having banks providing liquidity (common, all that Russian money into the Cyprian economy has been great for all of Cyprus). Now that system has failed and the big guys aka the banks are just as clueless as the little guys.

Do we need to rethink how our economy works? Yes. Do we need to help Cyprus, Italy, Spain? Yes. Partially because it is in out best (Dutch) interests, but also because they are European brethren. Is it okay to ask the locals for a sacrifice themselves? Yes.

I know I'm living in one of the richest countries in the world. I don't mind helping another country. I understand that losing 6.75% of your savings hurts.

[omgyeah]

Nobody blamed you for being consistent, organized, eager to work more and getting rightfully rewarded for it.

This is the way it's supposed to be.

Also the problem is not losing 6.75 of ours savings. For most Greek people it's 0 * 6.75 anyway.

The problem is that I am poor. My country is poor. My country was born poor. My country was funded from the beginning of its existence because of being born poor. My country has always been and will always be poor.

But now somebody decided that we are not poor enough. And there is nothing that we can do about it.

And while at it, that same somebody is trying to make your life less comfortable and blame me for it.

This is a scheme over personal economics. It escalates at country level. Further above what some countries or even coalitions of countries can cope with.

And let's not get started with black market money in Swiss or wherever banks. Everything is plain pretense.

[herdrick]

    My country has always been and will always be poor.

You feel no connection to ancient Greece? Your ancestors created astonishing wealth - you don't think you can anymore?

[omgyeah]

HA!

My ancient ancestors...

They were selfish imperialists that built their legacy with wars and slaves.

Even if we could do it again in the present day, personally I wouldn't want it. But there is no other way, is there?

And let's just think about it:

We could build today a monument that it would still be there in 3,000 years. But it would take the lives of 10,000 slaves. Should we do it? Shamelessly exploit people that will die anyway some day, so that we can show off in 3,000 years?

I vote for no.

And by "my country" I refer to the modern version created in the mid 19th century. There is no continuity with the ancient times (at least in political terms). And there was no country in the ancient times to begin with. Only city-states. A few rich and many poor :)

Therefore, I think that my country is definitely poor. Forever and ever.

[bitcartel]

It's theft, plain and simple.

The Cypriot people are not being asked if they want to sacrifice their savings - it is being taken from them by force!

[vacri]

Good old libertarians - everything is about money and force.

The money isn't being taken by force. Money is a social construct, and the people in charge of taking care of that social construct are fiddling with the numbers. There are no jackbooted thugs going into people's homes and relieving them of physical property, which is what you're alluding to.

Whethere it's morally right or not (or somewhere in-between) is a wholly different question, which isn't helped by hyperbole like you're presenting here.

[omgyeah]

Well... There are 5,000-euros suited thugs sitting in their offices relieving people of fiscal property.

Which is exactly the same as jackbooted thugs going into people's homes and relieving them of physical property.

And it's morally wrong. Like putting tags on people to make fun of them.

[st0p]

They don't have anything to be asked, since they're bankrupt.

[omgyeah]

The local governments and the local banks are bankrupt.

The local people are not bankrupt.

But they are soon-to-be.

[seanmcdirmid]

Well, the euro zone doesn't have to help Cyprus put and just let them collapse. Maybe Greece could sell the other half of Cyprus to turkey to get some extra needed cash...what is a better option?

[omgyeah]

Maybe you could sell some of your parents organs and buy a new car?

What is a better option? Maybe don't buy a new car?

Let them rot. They're too far away. I can't smell the foul scent. I don't care.

[konstruktor]

Their elected officials accepted a deal that involved this haircut. That's hardly by force.

[omgyeah]

Exactly!

The problem is that the elected officials promised the exact opposite, in order to get elected.

[konstruktor]

As a citizen of a fiscally responsible EU country, reading shit this makes me very angry and eradicates leftover trace amounts of solidarity.

[paganel]

I hope that country is not Austria (which ran to the the EU like a little girl when shit starting hitting the fan in early 2009, asking for help for Eastern Europe countries so that the latter won't go belly-up, that would have meant Austria going belly-up), the Netherlands or Belgium (both countries with a very high level of private-sector debt, approaching Cyprus, pls see this: https://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/2...), to say nothing of France.

The only European country still standing on its feet without any outside help is Germany, but that could end very quickly end once every other country around her begins the slide into depression. For better or worse, we're all in this together.

[justincormack]

Much of the money you have in the fiscally responsible countries is the debt of the less fiscally responsible countries. If they default you will see your bank account haircut too. One bank went under in the Netherlands so far this year, but the state bailed it out (so taxes will go up). Many German banks are not well capitalised, same with Danish banks and so on.

During the boom so much credit aka money was created from what is now nothing but people assume they will get to keep this "wealth".

[omgyeah]

As an earthling, reading superficial and insensible comments like this, makes very sad and eradicates my faith in humanity.

Of course, we had it coming.

Let's see your economy strive without the southern suckers.

Oh no, wait.

We have the chinese market now. Screw the southern suckers.