"There was an old man who’d worked over 40 years, but now his pension had been cut in half,.."
Pensions were not cut in half.
Blaming the Government only, is IMO not appropriate. Greece is a democracy and the Government was elected. Most people in Greek benefitted from the policies of the elected governments.
Example are:
Greece had a retirement age of 60, while other nations(who now bail them out) realised that this is not sustainable long time ago and have raised this to 65.
Many people doged taxes and one of IMF recommendations is to improve the Tax collection system.
