It seems like the problem is at least partly financial. Greece lived beyond its means for years, running a significant trade deficit. The government did not tak

It seems like the problem is at least partly financial. Greece lived beyond its means for years, running a significant trade deficit. The government did not take appropriate steps for the country to live within its means. The link that you provided about the submarines demonstrates significant irresponsible spending: Greece had twice as many tanks as UK. Why did it buy four new submarines? Did it not at least consider cutting all that pointless military spending? It also seems like there's a lot of corruption and irresponsible financial policy. For example, Greece's ridiculous policies around early retirement, such as that allow hairdressers, radio or television anchors, and musicians playing wind isntruments to retire at 50 for women, and 55 for men, due to "hazardous working conditions". http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/business/global/12pension.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/business/global/12pension.... http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/15/unsustainable-futures-greece-pensions-dilemma-explained-financial-crisis-default-eurozone http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/15/unsustainabl... A starting point would be predominately eliminating early retirement, and raising the retirement age to one similar to other countries. It seems like Syriza has been refusing to do that, because the Greek population is pushing them to keep these policies in place. Germany, by comparison, raised its retirement age to 67 years and Spain has done the same. They're talking about raising it to 69. It's understandable if German taxpayers are reluctant to fund Greeks' early retirement (on average, the lowest in Europe). If Greece and the Greek government wants to embrace reforms, then they need to end corruption and put reasonable policies in place. To be fair, the current article has Greece's finance minister proposing to end early retirement. But, why is this being proposed at the 11th hour, right before default? Why is this part of their proposal to receive further loans, rather than an a voluntary sovereign action that's obviously necessary to correct their economy (independent from any loans)? The fact that Greece hasn't already taken steps like these to reform their economy, and is essentially holding the reforms hostage on further loans, is surely part of the reason why Greece's partners don't trust them. Greece should have put these reforms in place long ago by their own accord. They should have done it in a way that's clearly advertised to their own taxpayers as Greek responsibility for Greek spending, rather than positioning it as part of an agreement that, no doubt, they will say was "forced" on them. All of these facts together give the impression that Greece isn't committed to doing the right thing. Greece's irresponsible spending and financial policy are the responsibility of its government and people. If Greeks want to keep retiring early, OK, but it's understandable that the rest of the Eurozone doesn't want to provide them loans used to fund those pensions.