Thread: Ukraine, the EU and Russia (suspension of EU - Ukraine talks)

Originally Posted by Hanna

People in Germany come out the most miserable in Europe, in a lot of studies, followed by the UK.

More miserable than those in Spain or Greece? o_O

Originally Posted by Hanna

In order to find a country that's not littered with ads for EU/US brands and trying to use their own products and services, you have to go to Belarus.

Would you mind a few minor corrections here? --> In order to find a country where the government is trying to retain the remnants of the economy that it has gambled away in the last two decades by enforcing local stuff of poor quality in stores and imposing incredibly high tax rates on imported stuff so it gets ridiculously expensive, AND people who truly hate that government for that -- you have to go to Belarus.

Originally Posted by Eric C.

by enforcing local stuff of poor quality in stores and imposing incredibly high tax rates on imported stuff so it gets ridiculously expensive, AND people who truly hate that government for that -- you have to go to Belarus.

Originally Posted by Eric C.

by enforcing local stuff of poor quality in stores and imposing incredibly high tax rates on imported stuff so it gets ridiculously expensive, AND people who truly hate that government for that -- you have to go to Belarus.

1) I'd rather call the price level of their local stuff "ridiculously low". But the economic policies of Belarus is another story, and best explained by somebody from there, I think.

2) Why don't you leave it to the Belarussians to condemn their government, or not. They don't need you to speak for them. I was just stating an objective truth; compared with other countries in the region, they have less EU/global brands, and ads for it. However, if you want it, you can find designer/brand stuff at roughly EU prices, in Minsk, and a couple of McDonald's. Personally, I'd rather live in Belarus than Romania after seeing both. Despite their EU membership, Romania is in a much worse state.

As for contentment with the government and democracy, I think you'd have to look pretty hard to find anyone in Romania who thinks their government is doing a good job, or that "democracy" there is a success. And that's 25 years after they hung Ceusescu from a lamp post. The Germans re-built their entire country from rubble in less than that time - both east and west. So clearly something is a little bit off in Romania.

My point is that the Ukrainians should just bear in mind that although EU is a great peace project, it's not a ticket to economic success, as the Greek, Spaniards, Romanians, Latvians and others can confirm.

Originally Posted by Hanna

I'd rather call the price level of their local stuff "ridiculously low"

If you were reading that post properly, you would've probably noticed that I wasn't talking about their "local stuff", but actually the "imported stuff" their local producers feel jealous about and thus cause the enormously big custom rates for, making it more expensive than anywhere near that country.

Originally Posted by Hanna

Personally, I'd rather live in Belarus than Romania after seeing both.

The truth is, you don't wanna live in either one. Unless you externally bring some funds with you there, your survival will be nearly impossible.