Dealing with Problem Members (post 23)

In this article on the potential for Greece's continued membership in the EU, an unnamed Wall Street executive makes the following statement:

"Some top executives on Wall Street argue that it would be much worse for creditors to cave in to demands for more lenient terms from Greek’s anti-austerity political leaders. Because that would mean other debtor nations would also soon clamor for relief. Better to rip the bandage off and put an end to the charade that Greece will ever pay back all its loans."

He claimed that markets would benefit from Grexit because "you kick Greece out and the world realizes this is not a systemic problem and the euro rallies because they just got rid of the weakest link."


The mentality expressed here is the type I find the most disheartening. It embraces the idea that a community becomes stronger when the weakest or most disruptive members are punished or excluded.

When a community identifies members that are disruptive and/or weak, there are a limited number of things it can do:

1) It can ignore them - which seems unlikely to help.

2) It can punish them - which, while in some cases may be helpful, often only serves to make people weaker and/or more disruptive.

3) It can exclude them - this seems to be the solution suggested by the Wall Street executive above concerning Greece. It is the solution embraced by so many middle class Americans who primarily choose to deal with crime, poverty and cultural tensions by moving away from them. This may be the worst solution.  It is a temporary avoidance of symptoms, but it inevitably makes underlying problems worse.  When unwanted people are excluded from participation in a group, they congregate and exacerbate each other's problems. They harbor resentment toward the people who excluded them, and they inevitably act on that resentment in ways that are unfortunate for everyone. If Greece is excluded from the EU, it doesn't just go away. It is still there and it becomes a resentful enemy of the EU - an enemy on the EU's doorstep. Only a short sighted fool in a Wall Street corner office would think that is a good idea.

4) It can kill them - eugenics, genocide. Thankfully these are no longer explicit options within the civilized world.  Yet we know there are corners of the world - even in America - where such practices are still very much going on.

5) It can embrace them - this is probably the most difficult option but also the one with the most promise for improving a community. If someone has a weakness or disability - then a community should come together to help that person.  If someone is disruptive, then a difficult judgement needs to be made.  Some people are so violent that lifelong imprisonment is the only good solution.  For some people, punishment really does help them become more disciplined.  But, in my experience, most people who are disruptive are so because they have never learned to value discipline or cooperation. Punishing such people is never going to help them. Neither is excluding them. People need to be embraced by a community in order to learn the value of a peaceful existence within a community.

The situation with Greece was mishandled by all sides. The Greek people have had a serious problem of corruption among their political and business elite. The rest of Europe was negligent in making so many loans to Greece and Greek institutions without first addressing those issues. But the past can't be undone. What is the best solution moving forward? Punishing the Greek people by imposing austerity measures on them doesn't help anyone. Excluding Greece from the euro and thus the EU creates a enemies at a time when the EU desperately needs friends. The euro group would be best served by forgiving all sovereign debt of its member states and moving forward with plans for greater fiscal integration and oversight of sovereign policy making.