Some things are not the Greeks' fault!

The Greeks/Greece have in the last 2.5 years been blamed by many analysts, commentators, media etc for the Eurocrisis. The main premise for the blame is their perennial government deficits and resulting national debt. One can debate that, but that's not the point of this post.

The point is:

So many allegedly "successful" country (national) economic models are actually based on gimmicks, "piggybacking" on other countries, myths/stereotypes, etc!

For example:

Some countries over-rely on exports (trade surplus). While some exporting is of course a very good thing, there are limits. A country cannot and should not rely too much on the consumers of other countries (that a perennial trade surplus indicates). All in moderation.

Some countries rely on tax competition (too low tax rates, off-shore tax heavens, etc). Nothing to be proud of. On the contrary.

'Some countries' economic model takes advantage of nuclear energy, putting into risk their neighbours and the whole planet!

The same, but to a different extent and nature, applies to CO2 emitting industry. Past and present mega polluters (see global warming).