As I watch whats happening back in Europe I find myself getting extremely angry. Every mainstream commentator is saying how the "PIIGS" are financially irresponsible and created the problems they are in. This is an outright LIE.
Yes we did have a hand in the creation of this problem. We blindly trusted the politicians that they knew what they were doing. We never questioned, until it was too late. However this is as far as the public is responsible for what has happened.
The argument that we are lazy, or irresponsible is a lie and an attempt to shift the focus away from the real cause of the current nightmare. The use of the term PIIGS is an extremely transparent and insulting way to try make us the citizens of these countries out as lesser than the rest of Europe.
Its always a neat trick to come up with an insulting term for a group of people so you can dehumanize them. Of course everyone will say its just a coincidence and that its just convenient to call Portugal Ireland Italy Greece and Spain the "PIIGS". Somehow though I think the media and politicians could have found some other term for us like maybe "In Trouble Peripheral States" or ITP's (wow look at that a non insulting shorthand for my country).
The reason that Ireland, Greece and all the other peripheral countries are in trouble is because private companies know as Banks made bad loans. This fueled property bubbles which overheated the economies while forcing the average person to take out bigger and bigger loans in order to buy a home. Banks, builders and politicians made a lot of money on this, while the man on the street found himself burdened with huge debts.
When these bad loans could not be collected the banks had their buddies in the world of politics force the tax paying public to take over the loan. We were told this was because the banks were "Too Big To Fail", something we now know to be yet another lie.
Even the politicians who did not agree with this found themselves being forced to bail out the banks...or more precisely senior bondholders who made the bad loans. Many of these senior bondholder are individuals and entities of the central European states. We did not even bail out bondholders from our own countries.
In my mind the only way Ireland can get back on track is to kick out the IMF. Get out of the EU, not just the Eurozone but the whole EU project and default on these bad debts. We the people did not run up these debts, our incompetent politicians took on for the debts of private institutions because they had buddies in the banks.
Oh and by the way, we need to learn to start holding our politicians accountable for the promise they make and break. If we elect you to do something, DO IT and not do a 180 the moment you get into office.
I could go on about this at length, but humans are visual creatures so I suggest you watch "Debtocracy". It shows the real reasons Greece (and the rest of us so called PIIGS) are in trouble.
After watching it you will understand why I think Ireland and the rest should leave the EU and default on these debts which we the people did not create.