But They Marched! And Chanted!

... and in the end it had no effect at all. The Portugese are about to become a protectorate of the European Central Bank (ECB).

Portugal will need as much as €90 billion ($128.98 billion), including €10 billion in June, under a bailout package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, people familiar with the situation said Thursday ...

It will take about two to three weeks to work out an austerity program to accompany a bailout for Portugal with the help of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the IMF, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Thursday.

Emphasis mine. A month ago they still controlled their own lives. Instead of sucking it up and voluntarily cutting their spending, they marched and chanted and demanded an infinite extension of childhood. All of that is over now as the (relative) grown-ups at the ECB are going to come down good and hard on them.

The thing I'm marvelling at is how a relatively educated population couldn't have seen this coming. They spent way more money than they were making. Everyone knew it because the newspapers told them frequently what their debt situation was.

I don't know why this didn't work. They had everything you'd need: a bullhorn, a sign, colored hair ...
I get it that a nation can elect an Obama once in a while. But to elect one and then after he wrecks the nation's finances by borrowing unbelievably vast sums of money, how could you have any collective reaction but panic? How could a majority think that by marching and chanting and demanding that a mythical someone else pay your bills you could avoid the inevitable end of all deadbeats? The Portugese education system must be screwed up beyond all measure to produce a population that can't make the simple connection between borrowing money and paying it back.

Next up: a search for an English-language Portugese newspaper or blog.