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Belarus’s Soviet Economy

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Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#21

Post by account73466 »

sparkling wrote: post #12

I had the chance to visit Belarus last year for a extended period. The capital, Minsk, is by far the cleanest and safest place i have seen anywhere. Putting aside the human right issues, i think the president there has run the country quite well given the circumstances and the post-soviet situation he inherited. Mostly staying out of conflicts, keeping a balance between the big brother to the east and the western Eur…

You are not supposed to say good things about Belarus, next thing we know you say the same about China or Russia! /s

Edit: look at baybal2's comment, he managed to get China involved somehow :-)

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#22

Post by nabla9 »

sparkling wrote: post #19
nabla9 wrote: post #3

Technically Belarus and Russia form the Union State of Russia and Belarus. Some speculate that Putin might want to turn this paper union into reality before his term ends and become president of the union. He would avoid neatly term limits for Russian president. https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-rejects-putins-call-for-unific...

My guess: not going to happen. The vast majority of people in Belarus oppose a state union with Russia. Also the president (Lukaschenko) has nothing to gain from this. Surprisingly he has been very hesitant to give in to various Russian demands, openly criticizing Putin at world stages and in the media.

Since Russia is subsidizing Belarus, they can start tightening the screws on Lukaschenko politically any time they want.

Belarus is just one military exercise away from Russians taking over. Every time these countries have a big joint military exercise in Belarus there is possibility that Russian troops might not leave when the exercise is over.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#23

Post by account73466 »

nabla9 wrote: post #22
sparkling wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess: not going to happen. The vast majority of people in Belarus oppose a state union with Russia. Also the president (Lukaschenko) has nothing to gain from this. Surprisingly he has been very hesitant to give in to various Russian demands, openly criticizing Putin at world stages and in the media.

Since Russia is subsidizing Belarus, they can start tightening the screws on Lukaschenko politically any time they want. Belarus is just one military exercise away from Russians taking over. Every time these countries have a big joint military exercise in Belarus there is possibility that Russian troops might not leave when the exercise is over.

>> there is possibility that Russian troops might not leave when the exercise is over.

Why they would do that? Unless you organize a pro-West revolution like in Ukraine. It is possible but making people dirty poor and desperate can take a decade like in the latter case.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#24

Post by Spooky23 »

kragen wrote: post #15
hprotagonist wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The first sign of lousy journalism is the chart of poverty with the $5.5/day limit, like the cost of life is measured in dollars and it is the same across the board. No, it is not, in some places $1 is the equivalent of more than $10 in other countries. Assume that's true: $55 a day to support a family still sounds like shit to me, depending on how you enumerate that. for reference, that daily value multiplied out f…

You probably don't live with family members in a poor neighborhood if your rent is over US$200 a month per person.

Section 8 pays about $1200 for a 2 bedroom in my city.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#25

Post by dblotsky »

classicsnoot wrote: post #14
AdrianB1 wrote: post #6

The first sign of lousy journalism is the chart of poverty with the $5.5/day limit, like the cost of life is measured in dollars and it is the same across the board. No, it is not, in some places $1 is the equivalent of more than $10 in other countries.

Always interesting how money data is usually offered up with no context; almost always a ploy to guide thought. In one of my case law classes, the professor had us read a Friend of the Court letter from the CEO of a company that specialized in the wiring for both consumer and industrial vehicles. The case centered on factories being offshored. The CEO was attempting to demonstrate how they had bent over backwards to…

The “PPP” in the graph is easy to miss, but is what makes the comparisons possible.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#26

Post by stevesimmons »

I had my second trip to Minsk last week to work with a local IT company.

I was very impressed with the technical skills of the people there. Belarus and Minsk are advanced in many ways (metro with trains every 2 minutes), electric busses (powered by capacitors, not batteries), mobile phone (MTS shop at the airport sells a $9 SIM with unlimited data for a month), Yandex taxis beats Uber, etc, etc.

The main downside I noticed was meals based on meat and potatoes, not many vegetables.

All in all, I now am curious to find out more about Belarus... Need to spend some time learning basic Russian now!

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#27

Post by jcmontx »

stevesimmons wrote: post #26

I had my second trip to Minsk last week to work with a local IT company. I was very impressed with the technical skills of the people there. Belarus and Minsk are advanced in many ways (metro with trains every 2 minutes), electric busses (powered by capacitors, not batteries), mobile phone (MTS shop at the airport sells a $9 SIM with unlimited data for a month), Yandex taxis beats Uber, etc, etc. The main downside I…

I was there last year, World of Tanks seems to be a huge thing there too

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#28

Post by dblotsky »

account73466 wrote: post #21
sparkling wrote: post #12

I had the chance to visit Belarus last year for a extended period. The capital, Minsk, is by far the cleanest and safest place i have seen anywhere. Putting aside the human right issues, i think the president there has run the country quite well given the circumstances and the post-soviet situation he inherited. Mostly staying out of conflicts, keeping a balance between the big brother to the east and the western Eur…

You are not supposed to say good things about Belarus, next thing we know you say the same about China or Russia! /s Edit: look at baybal2's comment, he managed to get China involved somehow :-)

China is investing in Belarus. They build factories and infrastructure, likely to get easier access to the European markets.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#29

Post by daniel-cussen »

Does anyone else find the pictures of tractor engines hypnotizing? It's a total antithesis of American or Chinese-for-American manufacturing, where everything is maximal or minimal. Instead everything is "reasonable", a reasonable cost, a reasonable engine efficiency, a design that makes simple sense, parts that aren't optimized to the micron in order to save plastic...it's so refreshing to look at the inside of a mass-market machine that doesn't look over-optimized.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#30

Post by dsego »

literallycancer wrote: post #17
rayiner wrote: post #8

The former soviet states are a great natural experiment in economics. Countries that liberalized their economies, like Estonia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, and Latvia (the "mostly free" countries here: https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking ) have grown much faster than countries that retained socialism and central planning, like Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. See: https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/aug/17…

Check out Slovenia for a counterexample. You can do either approach badly or well.

Since when is Slovenia a former soviet state?
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