Thread: Почему распался Советский Союз? Что происходит в Прибалтике, и немного истории

What is happening in Latvia?
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Neoliberalism, the development of underdevelopment, and the Latvian disease | Bersizns | Spectrum Journal of Global Studies
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Originally Posted by Seraph

What is happening in Latvia?
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Neoliberalism, the development of underdevelopment, and the Latvian disease | Bersizns | Spectrum Journal of Global Studies
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(note - the site requires login)

Well, if they want neo-liberalism, it's certainly their right as an independent country, to have it.
Basically, they wanted the exact opposite to Soviet socialism, and they got it, almost overnight and there have been some ups and downs since then. Whether this was great or not is for the Latvians to say.

But it seems that the result at the moment is an extremely high level of unemployment. Many streets are not in a good shape at all and many buildings are literally falling apart. Some schools and public buildings are quite well fixed up though. But I have never seen so much graffiti in my life.There is graffiti on all empty surfaces.
If you compare with how things LOOK, then Belarus looked a lot better. I can't say whether Latvia's economy is strong and has potential or whether it's living off borrowed money, subsidies and foreign investment. For the sake of the Latvians I hope it's the former.

It's a pity because it's a really nice little country with a very cool geographical location and a well educated and bilingual population. Perfect location for being an East-West gateway. It's got lots of cool and interesting architecture and it's one of the few places in Europe where all three main branches of Christianity exist together in harmony.

Prices are almost the same as elsewhere in the EU but peoples salaries are much lower.
I can only imagine that it's quite hard for most people to afford the things they would like to buy on the salaries that they have.

Originally Posted by Hanna

If you compare with how things LOOK, then Belarus looked a lot better.

I guess you see it right as it is:



Comparing Belarus to Latvia.

So if you are low skilled worker (and took unpayable credit during "fat years" for bonus points ) then your life could be really hard now.
But if you did not take any bad credits (or took credits and invested them in a good non-bubble business) and/or you are educated/skilled specialist in your field you can live quite well - maybe not as good as in the Western EU...
I mainly speak out of my experience in IT field - no one of programmers I know is unemployed.

Originally Posted by Basil77

I guess you see it right as it is:



Comparing Belarus to Latvia.

...have 0 times more chance of being detained and then put in jail for 15 days for clapping your hands on the street
...have 0 times more chance of being detained for screaming out such "terrible anti-state slogans" as "Long live, Latvia" (the initial one is "Long live, Belarus")

Google "silent protests" (you don't even have to specify the country - just these two words)...


Not to mention, that resource is in no way to be trusted. I tried comparing the US to Belarus, and it said you'd make 4 times more money in the US than in Belarus. This is such bullsh*t! While in the US you can hardly find incomes less than $30-40 an hour, in Belarus there're loads of people who get paid around $1 an hour or less...

Originally Posted by Eric C.

I tried comparing the US to Belarus, and it said you'd make 4 times more money in the US than in Belarus. This is such bullsh*t! While in the US you can hardly find incomes less than $30-40 an hour, in Belarus there're loads of people who get paid around $1 an hour or less...

Haven't you heard about purchasing parity? Comparing people's salaries using exchanging course makes no sence. Such researches usually compare amount of standart goods that you can buy where you live on what you earn.

Originally Posted by Seraph

What is happening in Latvia?
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Neoliberalism, the development of underdevelopment, and the Latvian disease | Bersizns | Spectrum Journal of Global Studies
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Well, some people try manipulating other people's minds with such "smart" articles. I believe this is what's happening.