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Belarus’s Soviet Economy

bloomberg.com

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Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#51

Post by FpUser »

adventured wrote: post #37
FpUser wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This qualifies for Sci-Fi I think

> This qualifies for Sci-Fi I think No it doesn't. It's by far the most likely outcome going forward. "Putin’s Retirement Plan Depends on Belarus" "To retain power, he is positioning himself as the leader of a closer union between Russia and its dependent neighbor." https://outline.com/skkJq5 https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-08/putin-... That is by Leonid Bershidsky, one of the best columnists in th…

I am not sure what makes this art detective writer best authority on the situation. Looking at first link, aside of few obvious facts his conclusions read like delirium to me. Think I'll stick to my own opinion regarding the subject.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#52

Post by hogFeast »

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…

Because, as the article explains, what happened with IT was despite economic policy not because of it.

And I think a reasonable person would make the comparison with Ukraine: Belarus didn't keep a balance, they are effectively run by Russia (iirc, Lukashenko and most of his associates are under sanction by the EU and can't travel there). Compare that to Estonia or Latvia or Lithuania...the difference should be quite obvious.

Btw, just generally: Lukashenko is not a nice guy. He is one of the more anti-semitic political leaders out there (and the competition is stiff). The human rights stuff and election rigging is also unusually bad.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#53

Post by Paperweight »

daniel-cussen wrote: post #29

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 ma…

Meanwhile in Corporatist America you are not allowed to fix your own tractor due to software copyright laws...

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#54

Post by hogFeast »

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…

Yep, have hired designers from there. Quality of work is first-rate, English is always excellent, and they have (perhaps somewhat contrary to the article) a good understanding of business and what the goal of a client might be. Stark contrast with the work I get locally in the UK.

Would definitely love to visit Minsk too. Seems like a very nice place (if you can look past the govt).

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#55

Post by l1g2d5 »

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…

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

Do you realize where belarus is? It gets cold in belarus. Meat and potatoes are food that can be grown locally. Also, it is environmentally devastating to transport all the vegetables all over the world like we currently do. Look at how much globalism has damaged the environment, not to mention the problems with climate change.

More people should be eating their local "meat and potatoes" rather than a globalized diet.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#56

Post by weberc2 »

Paperweight wrote: post #53
daniel-cussen wrote: post #29

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 ma…

Meanwhile in Corporatist America you are not allowed to fix your own tractor due to software copyright laws...

It is remarkable what can be accomplished when another much larger state is heavily subsidizing your entire economy. Good on the Belarusians for the progress they’ve achieved, but let’s not pretend it’s attributable to communism.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#57

Post by Ericson2314 »

l1g2d5 wrote: post #55
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…

> The main downside I noticed was meals based on meat and potatoes, not many vegetables. Do you realize where belarus is? It gets cold in belarus. Meat and potatoes are food that can be grown locally. Also, it is environmentally devastating to transport all the vegetables all over the world like we currently do. Look at how much globalism has damaged the environment, not to mention the problems with climate change. M…

Greenhouses

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#59

Post by throwaway8941 »

l1g2d5 wrote: post #55
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…

> The main downside I noticed was meals based on meat and potatoes, not many vegetables. Do you realize where belarus is? It gets cold in belarus. Meat and potatoes are food that can be grown locally. Also, it is environmentally devastating to transport all the vegetables all over the world like we currently do. Look at how much globalism has damaged the environment, not to mention the problems with climate change. M…

I'm not sure why this comment is being downvoted. I live in Kazakhstan, and while it's not exactly the same as Belarus, we're living in very similar conditions. In winter time, fruits and vegetables are very expensive here. Most of the cheaper ones (the only kind available to most people, myself included) look and taste like they're made of plastic, and are packed with nitrites. I tend to avoid them altogether, you don't get to have a very healthy diet with this kind of food.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#60

Post by m0zg »

pound wrote: post #50
m0zg wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

145 years continuously (and on and off before then, dating back to Peter The Great), then 74 years under the Soviets. A pretty good chunk of time IMO.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus and 'Establishment history' there. 1795-1918 - 123 years. "Soviets" was a union of 15 republics, not one big russia. To your original comment: russia absolutely didn't behave nice on that land at any time in history regardless of who they were at war with.

1772 to 1917 my man. Russia could not afford to "behave nice" back then. Every 100 years or so some European idiot monarch would hatch a harebrained scheme to attack it, only to get his ass handed to him a few years later.

https://www.google.com/search?q=belarus+part+of+russian+empi...

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