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Comment by askar_yu | Hacker News Reader

actually it's the same situation in most (if not all) Post-Soviet countries.

With all due respect, if you truly believe what you're saying you don't know what you're talking about.

A good counter example would be Estonia. But what's a good argument without data, right?

http://www.heritage.org/index/country/estonia Ranks 14th on the Economic Freedom Index? Well, what about other European countries: Italy 87th (ALL the figures are more negative for Italy, including corruption, property rights, business freedom), Japan 20th, Austria 21th, Portugal 69th.

http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/... The Corruption Perception Index puts Estonia above Portugal and Spain. Just for comparison, Russia has a score 2.1 out of 10, Estonia has 6.5.

I would've thought that on HN people give their arguments more thought, especially if it makes such strong accusations. These countries are advancing rapidly, the Post-Soviet countries have been independent for under 20 years. Yet they already surpass older EU members.

Estonia and Italy are indeed the exceptions that confirm the rule.

The rule?

Post-Soviet countries tend to be more corrupt than other Western countries. (see the nice gradient on the corruption map you linked)

In the States, a black person has a much higher probability landing in a jail. Does this mean we should say that all the black are criminals and the rest are law-abiding citizens? The world isn't black & white. On another note, corruption in the West just works differently. In the developing countries it's the average Joe who gives the bribe to an official. In developed countries it's the lobbyist who invites a congressman for a steak.

"Does this mean we should say that all the black are criminals and the rest are law-abiding citizens?"

No, but we should figure out which ones are actually criminals and which ones are there because of racism (which is probably a very low percentage).

I never passed a judgment on all Post-Soviet citizens and was merely stating a fact as you did about black persons in the States. How is my observation any different than yours? Seems like you're taking this way too personally!

Italy was never a Soviet country....?

Exactly, they are both an exception in their respective group.

I buy your argument, but only for for Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia (of which I was skeptical while writing my first post) Let's add Goergia there also; cause I am not really sure about there either. But now, you still have 11 out of 15 Post Soviet states where the kind of attitude from government as it's described in the article widely prevails.

Actually, you're wrong. Unless you don't count Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and some others as Post-Soviet countries. You could, eventually, be right about Ukraine and Belarus though.

Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland were never Soviet countries.

The Soviet tanks were just sightseeing? They used to be called Satellites but under Communist Russian control all the same. Post WWII History 101.

It's like calling Canada just another state of USA.

It's an interesting metaphor, but factually incorrect and it matters in some important areas (for example, netflix selection:)

I'm not seeing a lot of U.S. tanks in Canada...

Canada, no; These countries, some: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_...

They were part of what was sometimes called the "Soviet bloc" in that they were aligned with (i.e. controlled by) the Soviet Union but they were never part of the Soviet Union itself.

No, of course no. Not literally. They were Soviet satellite states. But it's a semantic dispute and we're missing the point, which is: the Post-Soviet countries (or post-communist countries - if we want to broaden the term and stay intact with the facts) are not necessarily bad places to make businesses.

Can you figure out what it depends on?

I.e. if we have a post-communist country, how do we guess whether we want to make business there?

Do you mean, if you're looking at it from 1990 and guessing? Or from today? Because I'd think all the standard factors for locating a new business apply, today.

I mean finding the reasons why different countries are good or bad for making business.

Indeed, there's a corruption problem in Latvia, but nothing like this. And it looks like it's improving rapidly as oligarchs are loosing power.

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