Q:

Logic behind the reaction of Greek government over the national crisis

Premise: I'm not an expert in politics nor in economics, nor I am Greek. It just happens that I've spent the last 5 months in Greece, heard a lot of stories from common peoples, and failed to understand the logic behind the actions I've been told the Greek government took once the financial crisis arose. Thus, this question.  
What I gathered:  

To counter the public debt problem, the government raised the income taxes and the VAT (OK, this more or less make sense).  
Then, the national minimum wage has been lowered to around 450 euros net without a safety net. What I mean, they didn't just lower the public one, they lowered the national and allowed private companies to freely lower all the wages to the new minimum. Many of my current friends went from 1200-1500 euros a month to 450 euros a month, without a chance to argue against it.
With a lot of national products to export, the lowest paid workforce in all Europe and non existing roads, one of the first things they decided to sacrifice has been the railroad system to start building highways. Not that there was a good railroad system before, but totally shutting it down means that you are cutting your own legs and that the day you'll need it back again you'll have to spend tons of money to rebuild it from zero.

What are the rationales behind these decisions, if any?

A:

To address the rationale for all 3 points:

The Greek debt crisis included a budget crisis. The debt wouldn't have been a problem if the budget was sufficiently in the black to pay interests and repay principals in time. Resolving the budget crisis meant both cutting spending and raising taxes.
The Greek economy can be compared to its neighbors, such as the Balkan states and Turkey. The new minimum wage is in line with those countries, as well as the economic performance of Greece itself. The chief goal is to combat unemployment; minimum wages cause unemployment by forbidding jobs that do not pay enough. The idea that employers would just pay more if the minimum wage is higher ignores the reality of globalization. Importantly for Greece, tourism can offer many jobs, but Greece is in direct competition with other Mediterranean states. A lower minimum wage directly helps tourism to be competitive, and can quickly create new jobs.
The loss-making railways were part of the budget crisis. Getting them off the budget helped; getting a few million from the privatization is another benefit.

Of course, much more is needed for Greece to recover. New companies are needed in large numbers, and Greece still has a very bad reputation in that area. It must become far easier to start a new company (in 21st century, the time neede should be measured in hours). Strikes are still far too common, so Greek companies are seen as unreliable suppliers. And the government is still rather big in comparison to the total size of the economy.

