The German folks I worked with must in the minority then because they were upset about the differences between the sort of loans or investments Germany had been making for decades and the way they were being handled with the EU in charge.
When you consider just how much of existing European industry was funded one way or another with German money or loan guarantees I think people are beating a dead horse over what Germany still owes Europe from WWII.
"But free money leads itself to a bad disease of getting used to it and thinking one is entitled to it."
It's a disease that comes in many forms, too. I know folks who act like having the value of their home appreciate every year is an entitlement they've had stolen from them the same way some people think various provisions for low income folks are entitlements that can't be altered to meet changing circumstances. Once people believe the government can and should intervene in every market the entire society is inclined to being infected with one or another strain of the free money disease.
When you consider just how much of existing European industry was funded one way or another with German money or loan guarantees I think people are beating a dead horse over what Germany still owes Europe from WWII. -- well, I agree. As you know, I live in Poland, in Warsaw and seeing what the Germans did here is quite devastating. Also, the Poles were then abandoned to Stalin. But the Germans have helped build up industry here and are the main market and supplier to Poland, so I agree with your point.
My point was not so much what Germans today OWE, but what many people perceive they STILL owe. The Greeks seem to think that, going by their government's statement. AND, more to the point, I was specifically talking about what Germans until recently thought (and many still think) they owe for their past.
That guilt has been milked well.