Am I just missing it or has the situation in Greece—2 million people, which is about 40% of the workforce, walked off their jobs in protest over cuts in governmental programs—gotten precious little press coverage in the American media? (I know, I know, healthcare and the Olympics). Considering that this is literally a crisis that could split the Eurozone—and have terrible consequences in Spain, Portugal, Italy and beyond—shouldn’t Americans be paying more attention to this?

It certainly seems more dangerous than the Asian Contagion crisis of 1997.

And Greeks know how to riot properly:

Tens of thousands of striking Greek workers took to the streets today, some throwing stones at police, in a defiant show of protest against austerity measures aimed at averting the debt-plagued country’s economic collapse.

Riot police responded with teargas when, in sporadic bursts, masked youths charged them in Athens city centre. The violence coincided with a general strike that shut down public services and closed off Greece to the outside world.

For trade unions the mass show of force was a warning shot to a government struggling to satisfy its eurozone partners with policies deemed vital for the nation’s fiscal health while appeasing angry workers at home.

“This is the red line,” said Nikos Goulas, head of a union that represents 20,000 workers at Athens international airport. “Greece is not Ireland. If the government does not back down there will be huge unrest,” he added, holding a banner that proclaimed: “As much as you terrorise us, these measures won’t pass.”

The plight of working people doesn’t fit into the narrative of the American consensus reality, unless it’s about their ability or inabilty to fit into their role as consumers.
Also, the story of workers taking control of their role is too scary for the Western media.
In the American script, the role of worker has been marginalized to victim - as in don’t step out of line or you’ll be unemployed.

Yes we should absolutely be paying more attention
but we (the US) are collectively asleep at the wheel.

Just wait until our Austerity measures kick in.  We have a massive amount of debt (and growing).  Someday its going to be called in. 

Although our Unions have been thoroughly destroyed, Im pretty sure the people will be taking to the street ala Greece and Argentina.  What is ironic, is that all of this could have been averted if the American people just payed attention.

What’s scary to me - and perhaps it’s cynical of me to think about this - is that I used to have this ‘hope’ that if things got really bad in terms of the disparity of wealth and the depredations of corporations and the wealthy against working people, that there’d be this wellspring of activism and class consciousness.
Sadly, it now seems that people don’t have a shred of real class consciousness and it also seems that most of the mechanisms of a nightmarish Orwellian police state exist; we have camera surveillance everywhere, an active and ongoing Cointelpro system that’s all over the netroots; some amazingly frightening crowd deterrence technology and probably more that we don’t know about.
I hate to sound all Alex Jones and all, but it seems pretty bleak.
Or hell. Who knows? Maybe Greece will be the word and they’ll enlighten us all.

One thing that helped to light the fuse on Greece’s economic meltdown was the 2004 Olympics in Athens, which left a debt of over 15 billion dollars.

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/02/17/OlympicEconomy/

In my home province we’ve just wound up the 2010 Olympics, with a debt that will be in the billions - we just don’t know how many yet, or what kind of austerity measures will be taken to pay for the twelve-day party.

The Society of the Spectacle has come home to roost. Do we need further proof that it’s bad for your continued mental, physical and fiscal health?