Greeks work longer hours, and take less vacation days and sick days than Germans, according to the OECD. The numbers are available here.
On average, Greek Workers work 2,017 hours per year, making them the third hardest-working nation on earth, after Chile and Korea. Yes. Greeks work harder than Germans, taking less vacation time, and fewer sick days. In comparison, Germans work an average of just over 1400 hours per year, while the G7 average is 1651 hours per year. Americans work an average of 1695 hours per year, with Brits working an average of 1647 hours per year.
The evidence is clear. The "Lazy Greeks caused their own problems" meme is a lie. There have been a number of stories blasting the Greeks for being lazy or for tax evasion. A story in the UK's Telegraph (colloquially known as the Torygraph for its hard-right bias) reported that there were more Porsches in Greece than people declaring incomes over 50,000 Euros.
The lie? Greece is where old german cars go to die. The fact that ancient Porsches worth $2-4,000 are common in Greece shouldn't surprise anyone. I remember watching in 2006 as a barge full of used BMWs floated down the Danube to markets in Greece and Bulgaria.
Coming back to the OECD numbers, they show that Greece has a huge unemployment problem. In comparison with the US in 2010, they have 10% greater unemployment than we do. Knowing that Greece has an employment problem, the Austerity measures being forced on Greece are making their economic woes worse, not better, and adding to the ranks of the unemployed by cutting Greece's public-sector workforce.
I ran the statistics several times, and proportionally, they have about 10% less employment per total population than the US.
None of this, and none of the solutions, have anything to do with the Euro or the Greek Economy. In truth, if Germany was better off with low inflation and a strong currency, they would have dumped the EU decades ago. They certainly would never have been the creators of the Euro. Germany is an export-based economy. Their factories are more efficient than Chinese factories. Being connected with Greece and exploiting this crisis allows German industry to profit greatly from an artificially depressed currency.
They don't care what happens to the Greeks. This is about being able to sell German goods at a lower price-point (keeping them competitive during the crisis) while pocketing the money in the process. The best part is, their population doesn't even have to suffer for the sake of a depressed currency. They blame the Greeks for the ills of the German people, and it causes the German electorate to actually support the very austerity measures being forced on the Greeks.
Again, those measures will prolong this crisis by preventing the Greeks from solving their unemployment problems. The truth is that if the Greek government were able to run up inflation a bit and create a New Deal style re-employment system, the Greeks would be able to go back to work and the Greek government would have the national income it needed to pay off its debts.
Debts made, by the way, to German banks.
This is standard Shock-Doctrine Capitalism.