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Well, if you want hopelessness I suggest you live in contemporary capitalist Hungary - in many ways, the country's fate is similar to the one described in the a
by torginus 5y ago
Well, if you want hopelessness I suggest you live in contemporary capitalist Hungary - in many ways, the country's fate is similar to the one described in the article, it has turned into a Western vassal, where nothing worth having, no company with meaningful profits is actually owned by Hungarians.
The problems about life you've described in your post are still valid today - we the country has become a nearshore colony of western corporation, nothing you do or think up will as an intellectual will actually end up in the ownership of Hungarians. No interesting R&D will ever be conducted here - all the companies that built high-tech things, and all the research institutes collapsed like a house of cards during the 90s, or were bought up and watered down by the West.
The political situation is somewhat similar to the one under Socialism - boy, I do hope you like the the current party, since any meaningful democratic transfer of power seems unlikely in the near future.
The prices and taxes and salaries being what they are, the necessities of a basic, liveable middle-class life - a house, a car, some reserves for financial stability - is a pipe dream for even the educated upper-middle class - barring financial trickery, help from parents or working abroad.
As for the concrete prefabs - while they were not aesthetic I agree - but the urban planning concept that surrounded them meant that they didn't just go up on their own, but they made sure everything - playgrounds, schools, pharmacies, stores was accessible in walking distance. The blocks were also mostly placed far apart enough, that one could get sunlight and breathing space between them.
This is in stark contrast to modern real estate practices, where the goal of the for-profit developer is to buy a plot of land - oftentimes far away from existing city infrastructure, and turn it into as many sellable m^2 as possible, with no regards for liveability or infrastructure load.
But no matter since these hovels are more often than not are sold at prices that eclipse the lifetime earnings of your average Hungarian.
The only meaningful improvement I can think of is the ease with which one can move to the West.
In summary, I hardly think the situation's unchanged - but your chief complaint - `hopelessness` - is just as valid as ever.
- _ugfj 5y agoI have spent weeks and months even on and off since 2009 in Hungary. Last visit, albeit just two days long, ended today, actually. I am well versed in the neofeudalism that Orban has wrought. And yet, look at my dates -- Orban is a symptom of much worse. I do not know where you grew up but the playgrounds were fucking dystopian. Do you remember the ping-pong tables? I do. I remember them all too well. They were raw concrete with a piece of metal for a net, it had holes in , but still. Try to pay ping-pong on a non-at-all smooth surface if you can. I could continue with the slides, the see-saws and all. As for the schools do not get me started. If you speak Hungarian I wrote down our education journey at https://www.reddit.com/r/hungary/comments/he9c9s/a_mi_t%C3%B6rt%C3%A9net%C3%BCnknek_magyarorsz%C3%A1gon_v%C3%A9ge_elmes%C3%A9lem/ https://www.reddit.com/r/hungary/comments/he9c9s/a_mi_t%C3%B... tl;dr: I financed a micro reform school for five long, long years, 2015-2020. And the hopelessness is no longer valid because you can leave. Also: you should.
- torginus 5y agoRegardless of the particular merits of Socialism/Capitalism, I think we agree on the main point - the replacement of the Soviet system didn't significantly (if at all) improve the lives of it's former citizens - the main advantage seems to be it's easier to emigrate from it.
- chx 5y agoI vehemently disagree with this. Yes, life still sucks to an extent but not living under the boot, velvet wrapped or not, still matters quite a bit. And there are quite a few comforts of life now available which you couldn't even dream of back then. It's really not even comparable. I needed to re-learn what sort of foods I like or not because I was eating such crap for the first half of my life. You can buy much higher quality food and in much bigger selection. There are restaurants worth going to. Life really did get better.
- agumonkey 5y agoYou now, I think it's broader than that. It's not western it's giant companies. Even.i' France there's a tiny feeling that as a nation we don't do much for our own. GAFAM organize a lot, China tech sector does the rest. It seems that we're on a sociological plateau.