Quote Originally Posted by Seraph View Post
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, 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.