Remember that many governments don’t care what happens to their people:

The 50% haircut, however, is really not 50% because the EFSF and ECB, which hold 55% of all Greek debt, are exempt from the haircut. So, at the max, Greece will be relieved of 22.5% of its debt.

Europe is fighting for the appearance of action, while not committing to action by anyone but the public. Make no mistake, the people of the committed countries will pay in taxes, at least, but, their own governments will avoid having to actually feel the effects.

In the vein of what Xpat posted:

Among addresses for which information is available, single-family homes listed on those police intake forms have a median value of $305,000 — a far higher number than the $185,400 median value of owner-occupied housing units in the United States.

These are not the poor, by a long shot.

And it’s funny that people don’t realize how central the US is to economic success. (And how bad it can be to sit in highly power-monopolized nations with money.)

Nearly half of China’s wealthiest citizens are considering emigrating, with the United States and Canada the most popular destinations

Of course, they need easier access to the markets to make their money grow; the easiest access on earth is in the US. And, comparatively, we don’t hit them up for nearly as much. There might well be another fear too; as the economy there lurches, the need to escape with their money grows; or they risk losing it.