It’s really amazing that Greece has managed to stave off total financial collapse for so long. They’ve been teetering on the edge for several years now. Of course if the European Union didn’t keep bailing them out – to prevent a domino effect – they would have crashed several years ago.
 

As the Wall Street Journal explained two months ago ~

In July (2015), Europe averted a Greek exit from the euro but didn’t fix the basic problem. Greek bailout plans since 2010 have kept breaking down because they have asked Greece to reach large budget surpluses that have proved beyond the country’s brittle political system. The alternative would have been to target lower surpluses and restructure the nation’s debt. But European creditors, led by Germany, have consistently rejected that alternative.
 
 
Now the International Monetary Fund has lost patience. Unlike the euro zone, it didn’t agree on a new loan program with Greece this past summer. The IMF’s insistence that there are only two ways to fix Greece – either via another heavy austerity program centered on pension cuts or with generous debt relief from Europe – is exposing the contradictions in July’s deal.

So here they are again: “Greece braces for new austerity-induced pension cuts.” That’s pretty much an understatement when it comes to how individual Greeks will be affected ~

Dimitris is bitter. The (seventy-five year-old) retired construction worker has to live on a measly 406 euros ($463) per month. And now even that paltry sum, which is just enough to survive on in the mountains near the central city of Lamia, is about to be cut.
 
“I had to help on the farm when I was 5, later I became a truck driver, then a construction worker, and in my later years I was a subcontractor in the building industry,” the 75-year-old Dimitris said. “I slaved away my whole life until I had my heart attack. And it was all for nothing!”
 
Because he retired early for health reasons, Dimitris receives a basic monthly pension payment of 253 euros. On top of that, he receives a government financed “solidarity supplement” of 153 euros – but that is now hanging in the balance. Greece’s international creditors disapprove of anything that exceeds a barebones retirement payment and have ordered such funds partially or, better still, completely cut.

 
While I truly do sympathize with Dimitris and his fellow Greeks, reading about his situation I found myself wondering whether he had a family and couldn’t they help the old guy out? Yes, the article goes on to mention that he does have children – to whom he may now be forced to appeal for financial assistance.
 
But… did his children have children? Probably not many. Because, that’s really the crux of the Greeks’ current dilemma. Gazillions of euros in pension debt – and not nearly enough younger workers paying into the system.
 

Greece’s birthrate for 2011 to 2015 was 1.3 (Replacement level Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is 2.1 children per woman). Do the math.
 
The population, like that of all European nations, is aging rapidly. The country’s age dependency ratio increased in just five years from 49.5 to 55.1. That means there are 55 Greek dependents for every 100 workers.
 
It’s the demographic death spiral that Mark Steyn described in his — book, “America Alone.”
 
Pensions can’t be funded if there aren’t enough workers around to contribute. And the bailouts can’t go on forever because the rest of the EU isn’t reproducing at a sustainable rate either.
 

On May 8th the new austerity measures – those Dimitris was fearing – were adopted by the Greek Parliament. Thousands took to the streets in protest ~
 

Late on Sunday night, the Greek Parliament adopted controversial pension reforms set to reduce pension allowances and raise taxes, among other measures, in order to comply with EU bail-out requirements, as anti-austerity protests continued to rock Athens. […]
 
The legislation presupposes comprehensive cuts in funding to Greece’s social security system estimated at €5.4 billion. In addition, citizens will be subject to a range of new taxes, such those on coffee and electronic cigarettes. The VAT on fuel will increase by a staggering 24 percent.
 
Greek citizens will already be feeling the burden of the newly-adopted fiscal measures this summer, as the five percent tax on broadband internet and ten percent on paid television are scheduled to kick in in July. Starting from January of next year, the consumption tax on coffee and electronic cigarettes will be enforced, along with a tax on tourists staying in hotels from 2 stars and up.

 
You can only live consequence-free for so long.
 

 
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Related:
Snowball effect. This article is from March 2014 ~ Greek Crisis Leading to Low Birth Rate ~ Abortions are up; births are down. And the reproducing that is going on isn’t necessarily Greek… (thanks to the Muslim immigrant influx)
 
The Empty Cradle ~

In almost every developed country, including most in Europe and East Asia and many in the Americas— from Canada to Chile—birth rates have fallen below the levels needed to avoid rapid population aging and decline […]
Primarily because of their dearth of children, developed countries face shrinking workforces even as they must meet the challenge of supporting rapidly growing elderly populations.

The Demographic Disaster Behind the Failing Economy