Greece's economic crisis makes the U.S. recession look "ok"

Greece is in an economic crisis right now because they were hit hard from the global economic recession which started back in 2007.  Tourism and shipping were Greece's two largest industries which lost a lot of revenue because of the global recession.  This led to Greece going through four austerity phases within the last two years in an attempt to solve their economic crisis.  Austerity is a policy to spend less, cut services, and cut benefits.  Greece's economy was growing exponentially from the years of 2000-2007.  Greece's economy is bringing the Euro currency's value down with them.  This economic crisis has brought Greece's citizens to constant riots and protests throughout 2010 and 2011.  An example of one of the protests is the recent one at November 17th, 2011.  28,000 people took part in the protest and 7,000 officers were monitoring the crowd.  The protests are so violent and chaotic, police officers use tear gas, stun grenades, and riot gear to disrupt the crowd. (http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-11-17/business/30418829_1_riot-police-thessaloniki-greece)

I keep comparing and thinking about our "Occupy" protests.  If our economy becomes as awful as Greece's, I can actually imagine how our riots and protests will be; just as chaotic as Greece's protests, or worse.  It's a terrible way to think about it that way, but I'm just being realistic.  If the U.S. was 18% unemployed, lost benefits (such as insurance), had extra salary cuts, and lost more public services, then there will be an uproar.  Our "Occupy" protests are like a baby version of Greece's protests, but can become as monstrous as Greece's protests. 

Greece's economic crisis must be seen and learned from. 
 
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_debt_crisis
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-11-17/business/30418829_1_riot-police-thessaloniki-greece/2
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-06-19/news/29676026_1_protest-austerity-prime-minister-george-papandreou-greece
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austerity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%932011_Greek_protests
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late-2000s_financial_crisis