7 ms·

> It's going to be a long struggle but thankfully the groups most supportive of populism and therefore corruption are older (>50). On the flip side, this might

> It's going to be a long struggle but thankfully the groups most supportive of populism and therefore corruption are older (>50). On the flip side, this might be just the natural shift in people's political views as they get older. I mean, the same argument is made by liberals in the US, forgetting that people simply become more conservative as they are aging.

jklontz 10y ago
I've seen this argument made a lot, but have never found it convincing. Is there any empirical evidence to back it up? A quick Google search suggests it is a myth.
samsonradu 10y ago
Right, they get older, poorer (since our retirement plans are terrible) and in need of the socialist measures which our left party promises.
- petre 10y ago
  They expect a benevolent dictator and/or a nanny state to do stuff for them, give them a job, a roof over their heads, food etc. This is how they were raised and educated during communism. They did not and will not adapt to capitalism and the free market. The leftist klepto mafia party PSD promised things to these people in exchange for their votes. They are screwing up those who work or at least try to make an honest living, those who contribute to the county's GDP and expect their taxpayer money buy infrastructure, hospitals, schools, kindergartens instead of lining politicians' pockets.
  - samsonradu 10y ago
    Firstly I'd like not to attack any party in paticular, all have done bad things in the past years. Life seems easy when you are young and educated but for old people it is hard to keep up with the pace of technology, even if they are educated. The abrupt transition to capitalism didn't help either. This is a common issue in many countries, not just ex-communist ones. Old people need a safety net and Romania has it broken.
    - petre 10y ago
      The issue here is corruption, not socialism. Socialism is just another pretext for legalized theft: give the elderly inadaptable and the nostalgics some breadcrumbs to keep them busy while the politicians steal the bread factory. I'm attacking the party that has more members with criminal records than all others combined. An organized criminal gang controls this praty. The president of the Chamber of Deputies who's also the president of this party already has a criminal record for election tampering and is currently under investigation for abuse of power. The president of the Senate is currently under investigation for perjury and aiding the felon. This is without even counting the many members of their parties who have been prosecuted and/or sent to jail.
paulnechifor 10y ago
I really doubt it. Older people in Romania (not all but many) are nostalgic about communism. They'll say things like "sure you couldn't say what you thought, but everybody had jobs, houses, etc". They miss having things decided for them, they miss having a life long job (which only works because the government plans the economy), they miss news about how everything in Romania is well and getting better and how horrible things outside of Romania are. But some things are the same. The ruling party (successors of the communist party) won on a message of "foreigners are trying to control Romania" and look at how many foreign sounding names in have in politics (including the current president who is an ethnic German).
burkaman 10y ago
Is that really true? The US as a whole has gotten more liberal. Do people become more conservative as they age, or is it just that their kids are even more liberal?

jklontz 10y ago

I've seen this argument made a lot, but have never found it convincing. Is there any empirical evidence to back it up? A quick Google search suggests it is a myth.

samsonradu 10y ago

Right, they get older, poorer (since our retirement plans are terrible) and in need of the socialist measures which our left party promises.

petre 10y ago
They expect a benevolent dictator and/or a nanny state to do stuff for them, give them a job, a roof over their heads, food etc. This is how they were raised and educated during communism. They did not and will not adapt to capitalism and the free market. The leftist klepto mafia party PSD promised things to these people in exchange for their votes. They are screwing up those who work or at least try to make an honest living, those who contribute to the county's GDP and expect their taxpayer money buy infrastructure, hospitals, schools, kindergartens instead of lining politicians' pockets.
- samsonradu 10y ago
  Firstly I'd like not to attack any party in paticular, all have done bad things in the past years. Life seems easy when you are young and educated but for old people it is hard to keep up with the pace of technology, even if they are educated. The abrupt transition to capitalism didn't help either. This is a common issue in many countries, not just ex-communist ones. Old people need a safety net and Romania has it broken.
  - petre 10y ago
    The issue here is corruption, not socialism. Socialism is just another pretext for legalized theft: give the elderly inadaptable and the nostalgics some breadcrumbs to keep them busy while the politicians steal the bread factory. I'm attacking the party that has more members with criminal records than all others combined. An organized criminal gang controls this praty. The president of the Chamber of Deputies who's also the president of this party already has a criminal record for election tampering and is currently under investigation for abuse of power. The president of the Senate is currently under investigation for perjury and aiding the felon. This is without even counting the many members of their parties who have been prosecuted and/or sent to jail.

paulnechifor 10y ago

I really doubt it. Older people in Romania (not all but many) are nostalgic about communism. They'll say things like "sure you couldn't say what you thought, but everybody had jobs, houses, etc". They miss having things decided for them, they miss having a life long job (which only works because the government plans the economy), they miss news about how everything in Romania is well and getting better and how horrible things outside of Romania are. But some things are the same. The ruling party (successors of the communist party) won on a message of "foreigners are trying to control Romania" and look at how many foreign sounding names in have in politics (including the current president who is an ethnic German).

burkaman 10y ago

Is that really true? The US as a whole has gotten more liberal. Do people become more conservative as they age, or is it just that their kids are even more liberal?