Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Belarus’s Soviet Economy

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 241 posts

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#221

Post by playing_colours »

RomanPushkin wrote: post #210
playing_colours wrote: post #115

In the beginning of 1990s, Belarus had more potential than Poland and Baltic states to become a strong prosperous democracy - it was a centre of electronics in USSR, had very good universities with mathematics, physics, electronics, engineering. It had developed textile industry, built heavy carriers, tractors. Sure, they needed innovations, market thinking, and transparent controlled privatization, but there were ho…

> State medicine is poor b/s Belarus Is Fast Becoming a Medical Tourism Mecca https://www.argophilia.com/news/belarus-is-fast-becoming-a-m... I know many, well, Russian speaking folks who fly to Belarus for a medical tourism purposes. It's much cheaper, and quality is often better. Best bang for the buck!

Man, how you can call b/c? You read articles, I talk to my friends and relatives there, my mother is a doctor.

First, there is a number of private and state clinics and practices mostly in the capital, where they can afford good equipment, and they make money on medical tourists or locals with money. Most of medical industry is outside of this spot and in a much worse condition, the further you go to the province - lack of medical staff, tools, medicine, over-regulations.

Second, the salaries of doctors and medical assistants are ridiculous - an experienced doctor makes 400 USD a month, medical sisters and junior doctors even less. Sure, there are successful surgeons, good doctors in private centres, or stomatologists that make 1000 USD and more, but they are not representative for the general population.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#222

Post by tim333 »

playing_colours wrote: post #115

In the beginning of 1990s, Belarus had more potential than Poland and Baltic states to become a strong prosperous democracy - it was a centre of electronics in USSR, had very good universities with mathematics, physics, electronics, engineering. It had developed textile industry, built heavy carriers, tractors. Sure, they needed innovations, market thinking, and transparent controlled privatization, but there were ho…

It's always been a problem with communal equality focused systems that the highly qualified find they can make more going elsewhere.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#223

Post by AzzieElbab »

scottlocklin wrote: post #220
AzzieElbab wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia's gdp is directly proportional to oil prices, not oligarchs arrests. You can google for charts if you like. No, I do not have a plan for Ukraine. In fact I think no plan would make any difference at this point

I don't need to google for charts to know that you're regurgitating an addle-pated neocon talking point. Oil prices are down, Russia's economy, despite sanctions, is up. I guess autarky ain't so bad after all. Russia manages to field new nuclear submarines, new ballistic missile designs, a nuclear ramjet cruise missile and various other insane technological contraptions. Meanwhile in the US we need to hitch a ride ..…

Ok

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#224

Post by SamReidHughes »

EGreg wrote: post #198
NicoJuicy wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China hasn't fixed poverty though. A lot of migrant workers are left out in pensions, getting as low as 80$ per month. Moving to those ghost cities have wrecked an entire generation, as it seems. Moving people out of poverty includes the pension challenge. Which is the hardest one and I'm pretty sure that the one-child policy didn't contribute well to that part.

No doubt about it, getting off the addiction to the pyramid for social security will require a lot of automation (Japan is dealing with this now). But it’s the only sustainable way forward. Look, China may not have eradicated poverty but certainly it was able to make the average wages go up 5x a decade for 20 years. Could this be done by uncoordinated market activity of private actors? Perhaps, but the USA has never…

China's growth was the result of uncoordinated market activity of private actors. They switched systems.

I don't think Romania and Hawaii form an apples-to-apples comparison.

Romania: a country in Europe, occupied by the Soviets after World War II, with 16 million people. Neighbors Hungary, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, and the Black Sea.

Hawaii: a U.S. territory for half a century, with 620 thousand people. Noted for its proximity to Johnston atoll (825 miles from Honolulu), Midway Island (1311 miles), and San Francisco (2393 miles).

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#225

Post by EGreg »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #224
EGreg wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No doubt about it, getting off the addiction to the pyramid for social security will require a lot of automation (Japan is dealing with this now). But it’s the only sustainable way forward. Look, China may not have eradicated poverty but certainly it was able to make the average wages go up 5x a decade for 20 years. Could this be done by uncoordinated market activity of private actors? Perhaps, but the USA has never…

China's growth was the result of uncoordinated market activity of private actors. They switched systems. I don't think Romania and Hawaii form an apples-to-apples comparison. Romania: a country in Europe, occupied by the Soviets after World War II, with 16 million people. Neighbors Hungary, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, and the Black Sea. Hawaii: a U.S. territory for half a century, with 620 thousand people. Noted for its pro…

What would you say is an Apples-to-Apples comparison?

And with China, I don’t think it is at all accurate to say that the millions of miles of new roads, bridges, infrastructure, ghost cities etc. were built because private market actors woke up one day and decided to make massive infra investments. It was central planning. And a lot of the science, electric vehicles etc. is sponsored by govt too, that is why China is the world leader.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#226

Post by NaggingGranpa »

sodosopa wrote: post #218
NaggingGranpa wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be thick. A handful of oligarchs seizing all the wealth created by Soviet "slave" labor and sharing very little did destroy Ukraine long before the loonies in Lviv decided to overthrow the shameless crook from the Donbas.

> Overthrow Oh you mean the invading Russian forces. https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/02/russian-disinformation-... > By the next morning, soldiers in unmarked uniforms had taken the Crimean parliament and raised the Russian flag. Throughout the day, the little green men—as the irregular Russian soldiers came to be known—fanned out across the city, capturing government buildings. Soon, behind closed doors and under…

Utterly irrelevant. Your point was that Ukraine's economic problems are due to the Russian invasion, which is false. Losing the Donbas may have made things a bit worse, but Ukraine was an economic basketcase since the collapse of the USSR and it remains one.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#227

Post by School-Cotton »

dmurray wrote: post #189
SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Belarusians love their potatoes I am a bit fascinated as to how this came to be from Ireland to Russia, given that the potato is native to the Americas, and thus was unknown in Europe before around 1500 CE.

"Traditional cuisine" is often more recent than we think. Tomatoes aren't native to Italy. Chilli peppers aren't native to India or Thailand.

In the other direction: flour tortillas in northern Mexico (someone from Mexico City will probably come and tell me burritos aren't really Mexican food; but they are, in places like Sonora).

Or beef in Brazil and Argentina. Or Dulce de Leche.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#228

Post by SamReidHughes »

EGreg wrote: post #225
SamReidHughes wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China's growth was the result of uncoordinated market activity of private actors. They switched systems. I don't think Romania and Hawaii form an apples-to-apples comparison. Romania: a country in Europe, occupied by the Soviets after World War II, with 16 million people. Neighbors Hungary, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, and the Black Sea. Hawaii: a U.S. territory for half a century, with 620 thousand people. Noted for its pro…

What would you say is an Apples-to-Apples comparison? And with China, I don’t think it is at all accurate to say that the millions of miles of new roads, bridges, infrastructure, ghost cities etc. were built because private market actors woke up one day and decided to make massive infra investments. It was central planning. And a lot of the science, electric vehicles etc. is sponsored by govt too, that is why China i…

If you're talking about roads and bridges, that's all we need to hear. You're constructing a strawman.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#229

Post by EGreg »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #228
EGreg wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you say is an Apples-to-Apples comparison? And with China, I don’t think it is at all accurate to say that the millions of miles of new roads, bridges, infrastructure, ghost cities etc. were built because private market actors woke up one day and decided to make massive infra investments. It was central planning. And a lot of the science, electric vehicles etc. is sponsored by govt too, that is why China i…

If you're talking about roads and bridges, that's all we need to hear. You're constructing a strawman.

All the infrastructure including entire cities. Why is it a strawman

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#230

Post by SamReidHughes »

EGreg wrote: post #229
SamReidHughes wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're talking about roads and bridges, that's all we need to hear. You're constructing a strawman.

All the infrastructure including entire cities. Why is it a strawman

China's ghost cities were privately developed.

Edit: A better example for you would be Singapore, with its history of public housing, which gets privately owned (or 99-year-leased). They also have public roads.

Post reply on HN