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31% of Romanians think life is better now than before the 1989 revolution, while 60.5% don’t agree.
My unscientific poll of Bucharest taxi drivers would suggest at least 80% and perhaps 90% of those old enough to remember think things were better in the 1980s.
In some respects they were of course, especially for the less intelligent classes. And not just them. The parties were much better then and everyone had time for books and conversation. Only two hours television a day was a great blessing. I imagine rather a lot of things were better but this does not stop me hating communism. And of course the taxi drivers I polled were thirty years younger in the early 1980s. Youth's sweet scented manuscript had in most cases not yet closed for them.
My unscientific poll of Bucharest taxi drivers would suggest at least 80% and perhaps 90% of those old enough to remember think things were better in the 1980s.
In some respects they were of course, especially for the less intelligent classes. And not just them. The parties were much better then and everyone had time for books and conversation. Only two hours television a day was a great blessing. I imagine rather a lot of things were better but this does not stop me hating communism. And of course the taxi drivers I polled were thirty years younger in the early 1980s. Youth's sweet scented manuscript had in most cases not yet closed for them.
I'm not in the least surprised by this and it's pretty much the polling result I get from Romanians over 40. People are always happier when they can abdicate responsibility for their actions or welfare and less happy when they have to fend for themselves. They will forgive all manner of transgression against their person or liberty for guaranteed bread and a job for life.
ReplyDeleteOr, put another way, Coca-Cola, free speech and TV do not substitute for steady work. Romania joined capitalism at a bad time -- many smart, hardworking people are underemployed in the current model.
ReplyDeleteThe poor suffer a lot in Romania and in many ways things were better for unqualified people under Communism.
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