By: LENG Bun Meng
Greece, the country filled with world-renowned philosophers and the first country democracy, is facing its arguably the worst chapter of its history. The Country is in mounting debt, stick in a political lock down with the futile attempt to form a collision government. The country's economy is brought to a standstill and to its knee. Greeks are everywhere protesting against austerity measure. Are their demand justifiable?
The evil root of this crisis is because of the excessive spending and borrowing of the government. Therefore, the EU has made it very clear that if Greece wants to remain in the Euro Zone, it has to adopt the austerity measure set by EU. The Greece citizens are strongly infuriated by the austerity measures and demand prosperous lives which they used to have.
The Greeks need to get a reality check. The days of luxury and comfort are finally numbered. The party is over. Consumption-based economy is not sustainable, as it was proved in the financial economic crisis. Most importantly, the government is running out of money to pay the bills and interest rate, since the government cannot print money on their own. The money Euro is printed by ECB (European Central Bank). Greece thus is obliged to lower the salary and increase tax with the sole purpose to keep the government running and prevent it from default. The people have to endure the struggling lives in order to ensure that the next generation could have a better lives. The idea of demanding prosperity during a debt crisis is ridiculous. This is like wanting to buy an expensive car while you owe huge debt due to be paid back.
In my viewpoint, the Greek should sacrifice their comfortable lifestyle and agree to adopt austerity measure in order to secure a bright future for the country and to remain in the Euro Zone or else the consequences will be more painful to endure.
