"Making 50% of the reparations" is considerably more than "never paid their debts", and while on favourable terms, we're also talking about half of Germany doin

"Making 50% of the reparations" is considerably more than "never paid their debts", and while on favourable terms, we're also talking about half of Germany doing this - the country was torn in two, and was at the pointy end of the Cold War. Forgiveness of some of the debt has also been part of the Greek proposals. It's not like debt forgiveness is unique to the German situation. Pretty much any time some entity is in risk of default, there'll be some degree of debt forgiveness; cue news stories of "creditors getting 30/50/70 cents on the dollar". Keep in mind also that Germany underwent massive social changes as part of their recovery process - it certainly wasn't 'business-as-usual'. That Germany managed to do so well speaks to the industriousness of German culture, not that they were 'let off lightly'. If Greece gets handed money without significant reforms, what will be some fundamental social, political, or cultural differences between 2010 Greece and 2020 Greece?