Letter: Germany's debt was written off after war
In reply to A Tucker's question regarding German debt. The countries that financed the German debt during the war, with Greece being one of them, wrote off the debt in the early 1950s.
This was done with assurances from Germany regarding their future behaviour, and allowed Germany to rebuild itself following their disastrous efforts to take over the world.
Germany rebuilt itself with a clean slate, and has become the force it is today because of this. The problem with writing off the Greek debt is that Greece will be in exactly the same situation in a few years time that it is in today. Greek citizens have been retiring at 50 with good pensions, and people were encouraged to pay whatever income tax they felt like. The handouts from the European Union allowed them to do this, and this is the root of the problem.
Every country in Europe is different, and a one size fits all simply doesn't work. The arrogance of the people involved in the European dream is the only thing keeping Greece from being cut loose to fend for itself. If Greece were allowed to go, then many more countries would follow suit. Saving face is obviously far more important to our European masters than the lives of millions of citizens.
Greece will never recover until it gets rid of the EU noose from around its neck and learns to live within its means again.
Shaun Sanders, Muxton
