Don't discount the third option, that creditors are neither dumb or gullible, but predatory.

Usually predatory lenders have more recourse over you: they'll take your car from the car title loan, etc. What do they gain from this situation, exactly? It seems to me like everybody loses here... and I'm not entirely certain they won't find some bailout and have it happen again.

Right now, I feel sorry for the people in Greece, it seems like they work long hours for nothing and their government is completely underwater.

>they'll take your car from the car title loan, etc.

they'll take your pensions from the pension pot, etc.

This deal is about giving predatory lenders political power over nation-states.

The point of this vote is that they can't take anything unless Greece agrees to it. They will have to control spending in order to get the economy back on track, just as you have to take in more money than you spend to get out of debt, but the whole thing is so broken, I don't know if anyone can fix it and I feel bad for the people who have to suffer from the effects of poor governing.

And with this rejected, who will give Greece money now? I mean, who's going to lend money to someone when you know they're going to tell you that you were a sucker if you thought they'd pay you back?

> I mean, who's going to lend money to someone when you know they're going to tell you that you were a sucker if you thought they'd pay you back?

It is perfectly normal for countries to default. That is an expected part of lending.

Here's the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_debt_crises

I'm not sure 'normal' is the word I'd use there, unless one counts the collapse of Russia, the Napoleonic wars or WW1 as 'normal'.

If you read the section under IMF on the Latin American debt crisis, you'll see quite a few parallels with the Greek situation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_American_debt_crisis

Well, they've "preyed" themselves into substantial losses. Even if the EU makes good on the principal on Greece's behalf, it was still a dumb idea to lend money to them.