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The former Soviet bloc countries were starting from near bankruptcy, and extreme neglect over a far longer period. They may have developed pockets of wealth, maybe much more development in the capital. The picture across the whole country will be much more mixed.
Without focused development spending and redistribution, training, encouraging business etc, it takes generations to play out.
We have the same problems in Greece (though probably not to that degree). Everything is slow, inefficient, there's lots of corruption and everyone is looking out for themselves because nobody else will look out for them, and anyone who hates this culture just leaves. This makes it extremely hard to change anything, and things improve at glacial rates.
I'll venture a guess and say you've never lived abroad?
> A true Greek
How do you even type that without expecting to be linked to Wikipedia?
So basically just like everywhere else in the world. You ever been to a Walmart parking lot? Or a DMV?
Sounds like maybe you are the one who has never lived anywhere else. This is called fallen human nature, and it is everywhere.
> You ever been to a Walmart parking lot? Or a DMV?
Have you? Because we visited very different places, if so. Nobody in the US dares to roll past a stop sign, let alone double-park. Merely the fact that you've said this makes me doubt you've ever even been to the US.
Oh wow. You really do come across as not having left wherever you live. Let me explain:
I didn't always live in N America. I have quite a few friends from those times who've only lived in poor and/or corrupt countries. And the only people who say "it's like that everywhere!" are them. I've known multiple people who've visited Western Europe/US and they said "I would never have believed that people could park and drive in such a civil manner"[1], which is effectively what you are saying.
As for Walmart/DMV: I've never seen anyone double park in any large Walmart-like store. Once at a DMV years ago someone parked improperly. The DMV promptly got traffic police to give him a ticket, and announced it loudly so everyone sitting there could hear it: "Congratulations! The driver of vehicle X with license plate Y has just gotten a parking ticket!"
I have seen double parking in apartment complexes. It's a risky game, though. Probably over half the population isn't going to wait to sort things out - they are going to call the towing trucks immediately. I had a car towed for parking in my spot, and someone had my car towed when I parked in their spot.
[1] Even though it's not that great in parts of the US, it's an order of magnitude more than where they've lived. Another comment: "What is it about Americans that even when the parking lot is empty, they still park between the lines?"
That's "thanks" to the Treuhand scandal. West Germany essentially bled East Germany dry - brains, infrastructure, everything.
East Germany perfectly shows what happens when all young people who can flee - the only ones remaining will be conservatives and outright Nazis.
And if you believe the Treuhand situation is the start and end of East German problems you are being overly reductionist, Herr Antifa.
Prosperity is definitely there, but so is inequality, which appears to go hand in hand with capitalism.
We're still at least a generation behind the west, but throughout the years some western economies slowed down so much that in say, 20 years, we may be considered a "poor first-world country" like Greece, Portugal, Italy.
Our countries were destroyed by capitalism being forced on them, after a long siege by US empire.