In isolation I agree, but it's tricky with globalization. For example my read of Greece is that it has too many mom-and-pop businesses which, even though they w

In isolation I agree, but it's tricky with globalization. For example my read of Greece is that it has too many mom-and-pop businesses which, even though they work 60-hour weeks, cannot compete with an efficient, modern German or Dutch company whose workers work a strict 40-hour week but in a well-managed Enterprise. Of course there are other big differences as well, corruption being one of them, but I think the cultural difference in company sizes is a big one: Greeks mostly want to work for themselves or in family businesses, whereas a typical German "small business" (as in the famous Mittelstand) has more like 50 employees (often 100-200), not <10. An economy built on tiny family businesses can't compete with a more modern economy built on Enterprises (in the sense of a corporation with division of labor, employees, professional operations & business management, etc.). SMEs in the 50-200 range are ok, but the tiny family businesses and one-person shops have trouble, and an economy dominated by those has few jobs and a poor economic base.