Reading this, I couldn't help thinking of an observation P.J. O'Rourke made after visiting the DDR ("East Germany"): "It takes a special kind of economic system to turn a nation full of Germans into a third-world country".
Nails it. Great quote. And you can't reverse the damage of this economic system overnight, especially when almost all of the young people willing to build and create something new have moved away.
The last part of your reply is especially important: East Germany is most likely the blue print of what will happen to the southern portions of the European Union. I am surprized this is not discussed more widely. Deindustrialization with most of the educated young generation moving away. This trend is hard to reverse.