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Also, if you're talking about Romania: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s_austerity_policy_in_Romania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s_austerity_policy_in

Also, if you're talking about Romania: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s_austerity_policy_in_Romania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s_austerity_policy_in_Roma... seems true: my own father passed through there in the 80s as a part of an army exercise, local people needed cans with food from the soldiers.. and we are talking about bulgarian soldiers, Bulgaria wasnt well back then at all itself. I went to Romania several weeks ago and the difference between what i've heard about Ceausesku's time and what i've seen now is huge, so dont mislead people. Dont get me wrong: I am honestly not a fan of capitalism, but to praise in any way murderous/socipath-based regimes as those ones.. is very sad

lucian1900 7y ago
There was austerity in the 80s in Romania, just like in the 70s in Poland. In both cases, it was enforced through IMF policy that came with the loans given. The loans were sought in both cases in order to increase industrial production and sell goods to the West. After WW2 and the fascist dictatorship, Romania was extremely poor and basically feudal. It is truly astonishing how quickly it was industrialised and how quickly the people's material condition improved: https://mobile.twitter.com/isgoodrum/status/1136693839526223872 https://mobile.twitter.com/isgoodrum/status/1136693839526223... No one was homeless (rent was max 5% of income) or unemployed (guaranteed jobs), essentials were cheap (food, clothes and trains), all education and healthcare were free, etc. While mistakes were made back then and technology has advanced since, economic inequality has vastly increased after 89.
- alehander42 7y ago
  But industrializing fast just gets you to one point: two problems with that in Bulgaria. First: yeah, this was a good thing .. until technology moved forward which was very hard to replicate in plan economies.. in Bulgaria hard industry and many factories were built without good economy reasons and they didnt really compete with western stuff which was made obvious after the changes. Yes, some of this privatization stuff seemed so chaotic and yes, we did have our own mafia years.. but AFAIK it was deeply (and still is) connected to the same class that ran the "communist" country before that which gets me to the second point: you cant just say economic equality, without context: yes, on paper stuff was like this, but from what i've heard reality was much more a gray zone: inequality was being pronounced in other means, ability to travel, development in army/life/job(after all: you didnt have much choice as the government decided on most of that), all kinds of car/apartment/other government assistance things, secret police pressure: it wasnt a rosy picture just to get stuff that is available in many nordic countries

lucian1900 7y ago

There was austerity in the 80s in Romania, just like in the 70s in Poland. In both cases, it was enforced through IMF policy that came with the loans given. The loans were sought in both cases in order to increase industrial production and sell goods to the West. After WW2 and the fascist dictatorship, Romania was extremely poor and basically feudal. It is truly astonishing how quickly it was industrialised and how quickly the people's material condition improved: https://mobile.twitter.com/isgoodrum/status/1136693839526223872 https://mobile.twitter.com/isgoodrum/status/1136693839526223... No one was homeless (rent was max 5% of income) or unemployed (guaranteed jobs), essentials were cheap (food, clothes and trains), all education and healthcare were free, etc. While mistakes were made back then and technology has advanced since, economic inequality has vastly increased after 89.

alehander42 7y ago
But industrializing fast just gets you to one point: two problems with that in Bulgaria. First: yeah, this was a good thing .. until technology moved forward which was very hard to replicate in plan economies.. in Bulgaria hard industry and many factories were built without good economy reasons and they didnt really compete with western stuff which was made obvious after the changes. Yes, some of this privatization stuff seemed so chaotic and yes, we did have our own mafia years.. but AFAIK it was deeply (and still is) connected to the same class that ran the "communist" country before that which gets me to the second point: you cant just say economic equality, without context: yes, on paper stuff was like this, but from what i've heard reality was much more a gray zone: inequality was being pronounced in other means, ability to travel, development in army/life/job(after all: you didnt have much choice as the government decided on most of that), all kinds of car/apartment/other government assistance things, secret police pressure: it wasnt a rosy picture just to get stuff that is available in many nordic countries