Would you say they are.......Opportunists?

It's not an excuse. You're the one in the crappy situation who has to live with it. Sorry, mate.

That's not how government pensions work.

If you add it all up, you'll find that the taxes you pay are not enough to cover the pension + healthcare now + healthcare after retirement. That's why Portugal has a problem.

Yup.

Blaming Americans is just an excuse; the EU is bigger than America, they don't need to be pushed around.

In this case, it was European companies that were pushing. But it's easier politically to blame America. Just like US presidents always blame their predecessors for anything bad that happens.

Microsoft has one of the best internal test setups in the industry, complete with mirrored windows etc.

They failed anyway.

Let me say it differently........get back in reality, man. Your post went off the rails by the end.

It won't. Greece doesn't have the self-discipline to manage their own currency.

When will it end? That is my question.

Wrong. That was the worry of contagion in 2011. That is no longer a worry. You have not been keeping up.

You asked me to give a citation. I'm not going to cite something that every half-pint can figure out by looking in a dictionary. Citations are for things that are hard to find.

The ironic thing is I actually did quote verbatim one of the definitions, but you didn't read it.

Not my fault you don't know how to do accounting. There was never enough money in Portugal to pay those promised pensions to begin with. It was money you didn't have.

Now you're trying to look for blame. I consider you to be a partisan and part of the problem.

You make a convincing argument.

That is probably true but tangential to the point you were replying to.