Nothing about Greece's current situation was forced on them. Sure, lots of politicking went on and the current situation was definitely engineered to benefit others, but Greece was effectively bankrupt and in default prior to the bailout. You just can't tolerate the level of corruption [1], tax avoidance, and union greed that Greece tolerated for so long. A normal sovereign default would have been just as painful, but in different ways. Greece as a country decided it wanted to stay in the Eurozone, thus picking its poison.
Comments like this remind me of people like Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, obsessed about the pain of their economic situation to the extent that awareness of how they got there in the first place is lost.
Greece got itself into a very deep shithole with only two main ways out. People look at the hardship of the current path out and see that it's obviously painful, then make the classic fallacy of the-grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side.
[1] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greece-most-c...
What would you call the fact that the Troika has forced the Greek government to implement brutal and deadly austerity measures?
I mean, sure, technically Greece could have avoided this. If they had left the Eurozone in 2009 or 2010, they would now be in a much stronger position (after a brutal but short period of even more chaos). But that wouldn't have made the European elite happy, either.
What is the cost of the Greek railways per passenger kilometer again compared to paying for similar cab rides?
What does the Greek constitution say about firing public servants? How early can they retire, still, after the "austerity"?
[1] https://anestis.quora.com/Links-to-credible-sources-about-Gr...
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/economics-is-not...
Still, the price being payed for this by Greece is too high. There has to be a better way. For example: Better contracts, better checks, and active support by investing in parts of Europe that are struggling. Or by creating a Fiscal Union, effectively admitting that permanent transfers are needed. This would be more honest, but German politicians are too afraid that this will be unpopular with voters.