Not really. It's not profitable for the government.
It's strategic. It destroys stubborn economies that try to develop without approval from the central governments.
Dubai is using oil money to become a tourist attraction. That's good and all but, why not create industry? Real, heavy industry (not construction-based industry like Dubai has now: they basically produce supplies for their construction boom) Because Germany would urge the US to find WMDs in Dubai (they're arabs after all, and thus, muslim terrists), and bomb the fuck out of them.
Dubai isn't stupid. They know what happens when you try to do things without the US blessing.

and constantly accuse us of having just waved our hands and made it all appear?

Because that is what capitalism is about. It's about rich countries staying rich, and abusing that position to get richer.
You see, it's simple: Germany has a lot of money (let's not discuss how they got it in the first place. They got it for free, from the US, who prints it for free). Germany lends money to Greece, and Greece uses that money to produce more money which is then - guess what - paid back to Germany with interest. Germany ends up having more money than before, and Greece ends up poorer than before.Why? Because Greece can't sustain an industry against Germany: even if they could, Germany wouldn't allow it: no country would lend you many for you to eventually compete with them.

This is broken capitalism, it's an exploitation of the system, and it leads to nowhere. It's just an elite of rich countries ruling smaller countries, and keeping them from developing, under pressure of different organisms like IMF, World Bank, Paris Club and others.

Is it fair that Germany has to give money away to Greece? Of course no.
Is it fair that Greece has to take loans to sustain their economy? Of course no.
Is it fair that the US can print money whenever it pleases? Of course no.

World's not fair. Let's not pretend Germans are saints. The worst offender is, of course, the US. Their debt is in the "trillions" and no one is talking about doing anything to them. They just raise the debt limit, and print more money. And it really doesn't make any sense: the US doesn't really have an industry or resources to back all that debt, and yet, they get away with it.

The truth is: poor countries just stay poor, and rich countries just stay rich. South-east asia has always been poor. They have a lot of industry now, and guess what? They're still poor.

There is no possibility for a change. It's been like this for over a century, and it will remain so. Lefties think "the US empire is about to fall" but this is far from the true. It's all fake money. It doesn't exist. China is the largest creditor for the US, and lefties think China can just demand their money back at any time. China can do this, and the US will simply default, China (along with the rest of the world) will crash, the US will throw boatloads of devaluated USD to China, call their debt 100% cancelled and credit agencies will rate the US as AAA+ again, cause they paid all their debt. The US will re-issue USD with new values and it will be back to normal. While everyone holding "old" USD will be left with monopoly money.

If money is all there is to power, why does the US go to war?

My solution to the whole "not sitting around" bit has been to avoid long stints in heads-down dev roles. Instead, I walk around a lot talking to people, go for walks/runs/bikes, park a good half-mile or more away from the office, etc.

So... you became a manager?

I went to school in the 90s, when we were still considered "first world", and I know what education here is NOW. I'm not comparing schools of today, which are a mess (but with free laptops for kids), but to the 90s system which was the norm for decades.

Rankings don't mean anything to me, really: it means other people STUDY harder than you, not that they have better schools. Your SCHOOLS are fine, it's your education that needs to be taken care of. As you say: creationism being taught instead of science - that's not my point. I'm talking about resources, not curricula. You can have the best curricula and teachers, but if you don't have money to support it, it's still crap.

Man: you have AV classes with acutual editing equipment, photography class with the tools and supplies, you have shop class with actual tools, you have "debate teams" going around the country, "spelling bees", cheerleading teams and, of course, football teams. Again: yeah, yeah, I know some counties are richer than others, and that people actually move so their kids go to better schools in parts of California, because a school is way better than this one this side of the county line. But the point still stands.

Believe me, you're FAR ahead than even Europe. It's not all about the curricula. It's all. I went to a semi-private school in Argentina, and then to public university. They just don't have the tools to teach anything. The teacher just "tells" you how things are. No experiments, no videos, not even photos of what you're learning. Just the teacher with a blackboard and chalk.

Yes, because creating 25% employment is trivial. Just set up a few factories here and there, and jobs magically appear. And Germany will not try to fuck you up because they will end up losing jobs.
Germany is a bully. They will not let Greece develop an industry (I'm from Argentina. Our bully is the US, they do the same thing)

And they got that money how?

Ah yes, by doing dirty and bully businesses with smaller countries.

Now, we are back where we began. I am Belgian and I loaned you money out of solidarity. You are not going to pay it back even though you could if you chose to. That is disgusting and I hope my government does everything it can to make a pariah out of you.

This is probably the stupidest thing I read on slashdot in the 12 years i've been in this site.

A random citizen believing he is the lender, and that he has a saying in monetary policy, and to make it worse: psychopatically asking Daddy Government to beat the guy he doesn't like.

Also, a Belgian believes he is a First-Class EU Citizen (you know who is? Germany. Not you.)

Back in 2001 here in Argentina the government couldn't print more pesos than what was in the central bank reserves as US dollars. Provinces needed money (because some provinces subsidize others through federal taxes). So what did most provinces do? Print their own "money": bill-sized bonds with face values of 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 pesos. The federal government responded by printing their own bonds. So basically every province had their own "quasi-currencies" that were valid only within their boundaries, and they were accepted at a value of 80-90% face value, and only up to a certain amount for your shop (usually up to 50% in bonds). (Except LECOP, the federal bond, which was accepted at full face value up to 100%).
These bonds had (I think) a 10-year payout at 3% yearly. They were largely forgotten when Argentina exited the "convertibility" system that tied the Peso to the USD, and the bonds were "recalled". People quickly traded their bonds for true Pesos at the bank. But of course, the banks kept these bonds and cashed them 10 years later.
This is one of the possibilities for Greece, assuming Greece has any sort of local production to feed their people (Argentina does. We don't need to import food, but we do import most other things)

Well, not literally, physically: there is no unlimited supply of paper, ink and time in the universe. But the Fed can (and does) print a LOT of money.

That's borderline communist...
Wait, no. That's outright communist!

That's the thing I LOVE about america: communism/socialism is EVIL, but their public school system is great (yeah I don't care for anecdotical stories of how bad a particular school is. Overall, it's great). But they can't really use government money to build things, or to pay for R&D like most other countries do. So, they use loopholes: their military, for direct government-funded R government aid for companies that build "privatized" infrastructure, like roads (after all: the government isn't building a communist road, it's just "lending" money to a private company -- through a private bank, hopefully. Ah, the american dream). They're also super protectionist through loopholes (price dumping via agricultural subsidies, "diseases" that don't allow for certain produce to enter their country, etc). But they're the first ones to shove free trade agreements down third world countries throats.
Geniuses, i'd say

Yes, we know. Western powers help only western powers. That's the whole point of this argument. It's not about money, it's about power.

You can default the external debt. Really, it isn't that bad. Creditors will of course try to scare everyone away, but the truth is, it's just the investors trying to get their money back ASAP.

A default is just "i can't pay now, i'm working things out". Creditors, sooner or later, get paid. The problem is that this credit is usually "big league" 10, 20, 30 or 50 years. Which is typical for a large international bank, or credit organization (IMF, World Bank, etc).

So when you're a small guy who saw a 300% return rate in a small period, of course you will get mad. But it's YOUR fault: if the country is paying out such high interest, there is something very wrong and you should walk away. At that point, it's gambling, not investment.

Kirchner is crazy.