No sympathies from me (for those EU countries in trouble). You can’t convince me that they didn’t know this would have been the outcome. They’ve made their own bed, so to speak.
The tragedy here is that with so many ample examples around, half of us, the Americans, are still pig-headed to ape those failed systems (either communism or socialism).
I agree with all you said apart from this snippet. In my experience Human beings have an almost infinite capacity for self-deception.