Why did Greece join the Euro Zone(accept Euro Currency) in the first place?

Question

They could have kept out of Euro Zone as UK,Sweden,Switzerland etc. does.
The selfish politicians seems to have let down ignorant people of Greece.

Answer 1

If the Greeks were to pay their actual taxes, instead of having the economy in two parts, the black economy and the one that they are actually taxed on, far, which is far, far les, then they wouldn't be in the mess they are now in.

Answer 2

Actually the EU pursued Greece to join, because it'd put the EU power-block right up against the Arab World.



If Turkey didn't have the religious Ak-parti, the EU would've also included Turkey to have as much reach as possible.



Greece's politicians back then were promised they'd all get rich, because there was no end to how big, and powerful the EU, and Euro would get(effectively with the removal of the Democratic Process by the EU since 2005, when the EU-constitution was voted OUT by The People, something that didn't stop them from renaming it, and signing it anyway, by the way, they are the 3rd Reich 2.0).



The war was on the Financial-Markets though, not the battlefield.

Answer 3

Ok im going to be cruel. The STUPID Greeks are the architects of their own downfall. Greece has been a poor country for a very long time, When it had its currency, drachma it was able to regulate money supply and its value.



When the opportunity arose for Greece to join the Euro , it lept at chance because it meant that it would have access to lots of cheap cash. Once in the Euro Greek's started to pay themselves at the same rate has much bigger more successful countries like Germany even though the country wasn't rich enough to be able to do so. The consequence of doing so lead to abnormal payments , silly pension reasoning giving people expectations that they were rich and entitled to a much higher standard of living . Whats happening now is that Greece is learning a very important lesson which is you can't spend what you havn't got. and you shouldn't expect other countries to pick up debts.

Answer 4

Greece has let itself down by living beyond its means. Look at it this way. If it was a person who did that and they borrowed a large sum from Wonga and didn't pay it back, they certainly wouldn't have got baled out by some nice kind organization that rescues out of pocket Wonga customers. That essentially is what happened in Greece. They went on borrowing from the IMF as all countries are inclined to do, but racked up a debt they couldn't afford to pay back without such dreadful austerity that people couldn't operate within its confines. When Greece joined the EU and the Eurozone it was in the hope that together is better and stronger, but, as they have found out, the fatcats are all for themselves and can't, in any case, keep throwing good money after bad, in the vain hope that Greece can clear its debt.

Answer 5

Greed. Pure unadulterated greed. They have lapped up the gravy for more than ten years. they were happy to take the many grants, eagerly took the loans, lived beyond their means, cooked the books to 'qualify' for membership to the Euro club and now want to walk away without repaying.

Answer 6

They obviously thought it would benefit them.

One might equally ask why they were allowed to join when such a risky prospect.

Answer 7

Economic clout.