Andreas Papandreu, the king of Greek debt, is long dead, but debt that he ran up is still saddling the young Greek generation. The artificial living standard growth which resulted from his reckless borrowing helped him getting reelected several times, but the guy died in 1996 and now people who even weren't alive back then are carrying the burden of his electoral success that was bought by unsustainable spending. One of the insidious properties of national debt is that it comes at cost of people who aren't born yet. They are in no way represented in the democratic process, but they shouldn't be ignored either. We understood so much at least with regard to environment (albeit the implementation is far from perfect), we should do the same with regard to finances.
Compared to death and outright enslavement, bankruptcy is better, but it is a choice between Black Death and some treatable cancer. We should strive for better.