needed (and still needs) this money for paying the salaries of its civil servants (and the lavish pensions). Greece still has the option to refuse the EU money, something that she obviously won't. The price for accepting this bail out money is being paid by the Greek commoners, like this Onassis heiress who now lives off refuse bins. In a way, it is the humble Greeks who are being forced to pay the price for the greediness and the insolence of their own Greek brethren (like parasitical civil servants and farmers living off EU subsidies) who ultimately lived beyond their means for the last two decades or so. The party is over now and the ensuing hangover really no-one's fault other that the party goers' own. @HugsAndPuppies. My dear, aren't we living in a fantasy world. The US and UK as corrupt as Greece? Sorry, but Yanks and Brits pay their taxes in much greater numbers than the Greeks do; many fewer government jobs in America and Britain are received through nepotism; and when you enter a little shop in Louisville or Leeds, rare is the clerk who wants you to pay "without a receipt" as they would in Thessaloniki. The Guardian's special articles on Greece (and Der Spiegel's and El Pais' and The New York Times') have covered this in detail. Guess you weren't there to read them. Maintaining living standards on the current industrial base is not possible for Greece . @bismarx This is true if we're talking