Let's face it: the culture of corruption has caught up to the people. Lax tax collection, no land registry, huge bureaucracy, crooked deals everywhere. That rots the core of the country. People who left the country can remember getting taken badly for decades afterward.

In the USA, it only took 8 years of cronyism and corruption to completely tank our economy and send people fleeing to protect themselves.

One wonders how Greece operated this long at all given the noxious mix of government and business.

With high corruption comes a level of cynicism that eventually corrodes the nation's well-being.