EU shouldn’t turn its back on Greece, not yet

The situation for Greece is not improving, especially in the eyes of the other European countries. The Finance Minister of Greece Evangelios Venizelos informed the BBC that several countries in the Eurozone wish to remove Greece from the "bloc" in hopes to salvage this crisis. For Europe to remove one of its own just to try and save itself seems pretty extreme.

Greece is facing 21 percent unemployment and 48 percent of their younger generation is out of work. There has been a 25 percent increase in homelessness in Greece, one out of five people in poverty can't afford to buy food for their family and in the past year, calls to suicide hotlines in Athens alone have doubled. The situation in Greece is still declining, and with the European Union boycotting Iranian oil on July 1, Greece has to find another country to go to for crude oil, or suffer more economic problems.

There isn't much Greece has been able to do in order to recover from its debt problems. Greece is seeking help from outside creditors to try to clean its debt, even asking the EU to consider dipping into the International Monetary Fund to the tune of 130 billion euros, or $170 billion, for bailout purposes.

The EU told Greece that there needs to be an austerity plan in order to prove that Greece will recover over time and pay back all debts it has incurred. Greece is struggling to prove its worth; it managed to create 325 million euros worth of savings through budget cuts on health care and defense. Many countries like Germany, Austria and the Netherlands feel very skeptical about Greece being able to recover or even pay back its debts. The German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble hopes Germany will help Greece out, but they are not going to pour money into a bottomless pit." A tragic sentiment shared by many in the EU as their patience for Greece runs thin.

Last week, in "Profit Over People: Inhumanity of Capitalism," fellow columnist Sean Tipton pointed out that the economic system we are using not only allows for us to choose profits over humans, but ultimately encourages the act. Proving Stalin right shows how far we have fallen, especially when he said that "one death is a tragedy, one million is a statistic." This appears to be happening to Greece; the country is just another statistic in the economic downturn affecting the world, not the tragedy of millions of people being abandoned at the time when the need the most help.

The sheer fact that many European leaders are considering abandoning a fallen nation because they are hurting the bottom line is sickening. Abandoning a country of 12 million people for dragging you down a little shows how far we have fallen as humans.

There was a time when we used to have ethics and morals, a time when we weren't so desensitized to the human suffering around us that we tried, for the most part, to help. We didn't always abandon our neighbors when they fell on hard times. We instead tried to give them a boost or try to help ease the burden on their shoulders.

At times, I have been called a psychopath for not showing enough compassion, but I've never considered someone expendable or thought of throwing someone under the bus to allow me to get further ahead in life. However, that seems to be the way many of the European leaders are acting, as if their more psychopathic nature has taken hold.

When the 27 European countries got together to form their magical European Union, they essentially created a European version of the United States. All the countries involved in the Union are mostly autonomous, but there is a "national government" responsible for many economic decisions and even some policy issues in a country.

Entering into this arrangement to benefit all the involved parties merely to turn around and ditch one member for falling on hard times is shameful. This would be like the United States removing Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, or annexing Michigan because Detroit was no longer as useful for making cars as it had been.

I don't believe the EU is lacking the heart to truly remove Greece from the union, but we should definitely keep an eye out in the event that Greece will need support.

Robert Fix is a senior in business. The opinions expressed in his columns do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Barometer staff. Fix can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com.