Personal Responsibility and the Greek Crisis

CNN reports Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, passed a new landmark by having a personal net worth of 1.1 billion dollars, arising from his bonuses  out of Goldman Sachs's huge profits; concurrently they reported an interview with Blankfein in which he regrets the great financial inequality in the world and comments that those with great wealth ought to take some personal responsibility for redistributing it to improve conditions for the poor. Another CNN article reports on the 40 percent rise in homelessness in Athens in the past 3 years following the collapse of the Greek economy and another article reports the angry rioting in the streets, with crowds shouting "They can't take our Acropolis." The photo above shows an elderly man sitting with all he has on the street there. Meanwhile, a new report from Robert Reich notes the Greek economic collapse occurred when financial manipulations by Goldman Sachs caused the Greek national debt to double and go out of control. I had pointed that out back in 2012, when Goldman Sachs profits were on the rise. Deutsche Bank then pitched in to help complete the job on Greece. Is there some irony there?
Even The Economist shows the first trace of crocodile tears as it comments how the heart says the EU should grant relief to Greece, but the head says they shouldn't. The Economist also notes that the German demands for austerity take the pressure off the IMF to write off  their loans to Greece. The collective response is probably one of the finest jobs of juggling responsibility ever accomplished by the financial world. The saddest footnote is the report that some of the harshest critics of  Greece are the small nations of Eastern Europe who are recent members of the EU. They should know better from their own experience, but don't. What we are witnessing is the dismembering of the cradle of European civilization by the nation states of Europe acting as agents for the international financial corporations. They are transforming democracy to anarchy (both terms invented by Greece.) Meanwhile profits and bonuses continue to grow. And the recipients of the profits remain very silent, accepting no "personal responsibility."
That of course is the dark secret of the international corporation. It absorbs all personal moral responsibility for acts that, if done by a person, would be branded as atrocities. It's similar that way to the remark attributed to Mafia executioners, "Nothing personal, just business." The corporation moves to get a better tax subsidy, leaving behind a devastated local economy - "Nothing personal, just business." The corporation diverts the equivalent of the corn crop of Iowa to soft drinks, doubling the price of food in starving third world countries - "Nothing personal, just business." The corporation doubles the national debt of Greece, threatening to destroy a nation - "Nothing personal - just business." Perhaps the CEO's of the world like Lloyd Blankfein might give some thought to what personal responsibility really means.