One of the most interesting things, to me at least, is how people can say things without a single thought as to how they might come across to others.  In other words, saying something that undercuts the very thing that you are trying to accomplish.  For example, I was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about Greece.  As you may be aware, the country is in deep financial crisis - so serious that it is affecting the world economy.  The worry is that the problems there are some sort of contagious virus that will spread to the rest of the world.  Now, I have already blogged about that before so I am not going to repeat my thoughts here, but what I loved about the article, was the quotes in it for Greeks facing cuts and changes in order to qualify for a huge bail out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU).

Understandably the IMF and EU are asking for serious cuts in benefits and expenses on the part of the Greeks in order to feel comfortable spending more money there.  I won't spend any time here going over what those cuts are, as they are irrelevant to most of us, but the bottom line is that the Greeks set up one of the most extravagant welfare states in the world and now they need to cut back, as they are totally broke.  Of course, those who have received the benefits for decades are screaming! 

I read one quote by an Athens pharmacist who said, "….they are handing over the profession to multi-nationals who are not pharmacists but entrepreneurs!"  Oh, the shock of it all!  He is saying that instead of getting paid - regardless of whether he does his job well or provides the best service at the lowest cost to his customers - now he is going to have to compete with, gasp, foreigners who are businesspeople.  My God, they might even do a better job…… so where does that leave him?  Oh, call me silly, but wouldn't the best course of action for him to be to streamline his own business and do a better job?  Like I said, silly me.

Then there was, and this is my favorite, the Athens University professor who said without a trace of irony, "We Greeks are proud.  We don't like to be restrained from the outside".  Right, you just want the outside to keep giving you money that you have no idea how to repay without making any changes.  Yeah, that's gonna fly like a lead balloon.

Here's the thing, when relating the whole Greek mess to us, we need to accept that we are living in a new world and a new way of doing business.  We can no longer rely on things just seeming to take care of themselves and need to do whatever it takes to make our own lives better.  No amount of resistance to the change upon us is going to stop it.  We own our own destiny for better or worse.  I prefer better, don't you?