So now we are implying the the population of a country are less than human, because of economics. Cool!

That's just an insult.

No, that's Hanlon's Razor. Either the population was ignorant of living beyond their means and adopting bad economic policies -- or they are deadbeats who willfully took out credit they had no intention of repaying.

The population is not the one who adopts the economic policies. The government is.

Governments are elected by the population. Are they then not responsible for their choices?

The elected party in Greece only got 40% of the votes and they can pass any law and take any decision at will. In addition to that pretty much every party that was elected in the past had been caught lying regarding most things that they said regarding the economy (and not only). People should certainly be responsible for their choices, but this was not one of them.

No it's an analogy for a population who didn't see fit to pay their taxes, have a functioning state, who thought it was a good idea to adopt a foreign currency when it didn't make sense economically, and doesn't understand why they are forced to make economic sacrifices to correct the situation.

I think the accusation of ignorance is kinder than the alternative ("let's not pay our taxes, the germans will pay for us").

> who didn't see fit to pay their taxes

With all the corruption going around I would not blame them. (even without it I would not blame them regardless. There are many people all over the world -including me- who consider taxes thievery)

Anyway, please do correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't it only the rich/rich companies that did that? Similarly to how Amazon, Google, or Apple for example pay almost no tax.

> who thought it was a good idea to adopt a foreign currency when it didn't make sense economically

Do you have a citation for this? As far as I know the Greek population was not asked about it.

As far as I am aware, tax fraud was (and probably still is) endemic in Greece. If you like to think it is just Amazon not paying its taxes, believe what you want. If you go see a doctor in Greece he will ask for cash.

What do you mean the population wasn't asked? It's a democracy. The population elects polititians that vote laws and make decisions. Like in almost every country and for almost every topic. If the greeks didn't care about what their polititians did, good for them. But they aren't children. They are a sovereign democracy. They own the consequences.

> If you go see a doctor in Greece he will ask for cash.

Yes? Cash is the standard method of payment, what is the issue exactly? Regardless of that, employees (who are the majority of the workforce in pretty much every country) can't tax-evade.

> What do you mean the population wasn't asked?

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22385367

And at the end of the day, even if there was true democracy it would still not make sense to blame all the population for the choice of the majority. In the same way that you can't blame every American for the killer drones, or every German for the election of the NSDAP.