Belarus’s Soviet Economy • Hacker News Board

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#201

Post by dzhiurgis » Sun, Dec 01, 2019, 9:55 PM UTC

sam_lowry_ wrote: post #168

dzhiurgis wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make it sound glamorous but as Lithuanian I found Minsk to be rather sad. I mean painting over manhole covers, destroyed architecture, national library that looks like giant bacteriophage that has robots inside but you still have to let babushka sign off a book, the town that looks like it has population of 100k, not 2M. It felt like a dead city with boring food and basically nothing to do. I agree the engineers…

Aside from downtown Vilnius, Lithiania looks worse than Belarus. At least as far as appearences go.

Fair, I haven’t been to country in Belarus.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#202

Post by gdy » Sun, Dec 01, 2019, 10:14 PM UTC

playing_colours wrote: post #193

gdy wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So now discounts and preferences are a bad thing suddenly? "Belarusian government did not do anything" How is that Russia's fault? "To keep their power, they sold country" What exactly did Russia get? Belarus is still a sovereign country. So you are saying that you would've stayed in Belarus if not for Russia?

Too many questions, my friend, shallow questions. And it seems like not for a good discussion, but for pushing your personal opinion, manipulations, or some agenda. Please, do some research - on how a large country can make a small neighbour dependent on money injections, how they can ask to pay for credits with key state factories, keep hordes of agents and influencers in their governments, military, among politicia…

Or maybe it was too many unsubstantiated statements on your part?

The questions don't look shallow to me, they are specific, and your response is hand-waving and 'please do some research'. And here I thought you did that research yourself before blaming Russia.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#203

Post by scottlocklin » Sun, Dec 01, 2019, 11:08 PM UTC

tasubotadas wrote: post #179

scottlocklin wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gee, I wonder why Belarus doesn't have this problem? I do business in Ukraine; I'm well aware of conditions on the ground there.

Belarus is a craphole because they have a dictator who only cares about farming. But/thus he isn't afraid of dealing with criminals. Ukraine is a craphole because of corruption not because it liberalized.

Belarus, as the article clearly states, unlike Ukraine, isn't a craphole at all.

Saying "muh corruption" isn't an argument. Russia had a problem with corruption as well until they elected a patriotic strong man who got it under control to the point where oligarchs were no longer fighting pitched gun battles in Moscow. What's your plan for dealing with neoliberal induced corruption in Ukaine?

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#204

Post by discobot » Sun, Dec 01, 2019, 11:31 PM UTC

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…

Estonia and Lithuania despite democracy and economic reforms are well known money laundromats for Russian oligarchy (see for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danske_Bank_money_laundering_s...).

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#205

Post by discobot » Sun, Dec 01, 2019, 11:38 PM UTC

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…

>... had very good universities with mathematics, physics, electronics, engineering. It had developed textile industry, built heavy carriers, tractors.

Well, so was Ukraine, and look at it now.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#206

Post by jayalpha » Mon, Dec 02, 2019, 1:06 AM UTC

tasubotadas wrote: post #160

jayalpha wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

>Estonia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Latvia were tech hubs during soviet time. Please provide references.

It is well known. VEF, Eletrotehnika, Tondi Elektroonika and others. Also big biotech hub in Soviet times. AFAIK. Even the first soviet atomic bomb was partly build there ("Sillamäe").

I spare you the details for the Czech republic since this should be well known. They were always an industrial and manufacturing hub, even during German occupation in WW2. Airplanes, Tanks, guns, cars (Skoda!), machinery etc. Don't forget, they are a comparably small country.

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#207

Post by grecy » Mon, Dec 02, 2019, 1:22 AM UTC

teh_klev wrote: post #195

grecy wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make the very common mistake of assuming a country with a dictator and human rights abuses is automatically a horrible place to be. Earlier this year I was in Sudan for a few weeks. Hands down the friendliest and kindest people I've ever met on earth. Much, much friendlier than Australians or Canadians. Open your mind, accept there are other ways to do things, and we can learn to improve our way of doing things.…

>Hands down the friendliest and kindest people I've ever met on earth Anecdotally, Iranian people fall into the same category despite living under a despotic regime and severe sanctions imposed by the US.

I agree. I've never met a single person that has travelled to Iran that doesn't list it as their all-time favourite country, and number 1 they want to return to. I've met at least a few hundred people that have driven across, spending 2-4 weeks.

(Note: I've never been)

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#208

Post by AzzieElbab » Mon, Dec 02, 2019, 2:23 AM UTC

scottlocklin wrote: post #203

tasubotadas wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Belarus is a craphole because they have a dictator who only cares about farming. But/thus he isn't afraid of dealing with criminals. Ukraine is a craphole because of corruption not because it liberalized.

Belarus, as the article clearly states, unlike Ukraine, isn't a craphole at all. Saying "muh corruption" isn't an argument. Russia had a problem with corruption as well until they elected a patriotic strong man who got it under control to the point where oligarchs were no longer fighting pitched gun battles in Moscow. What's your plan for dealing with neoliberal induced corruption in Ukaine?

Seriously? No corruption in Russia since FSB officers have themselves become oligarchs? Or was there another point?

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#209

Post by stebann » Mon, Dec 02, 2019, 5:10 AM UTC

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…

And I think you're a liberal biased man...

Re: Belarus’s Soviet Economy

#210

Post by RomanPushkin » Mon, Dec 02, 2019, 5:28 AM UTC

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!