Posted on 04/03/2009 9:35:22 AM PDT by wyowolf
BUDAPEST – If anyone wonders how bad the economic crisis is in Europe, consider this: While shooting a story in Budapest, last week we parked our vehicle on a street in a part of town that has fallen on hard times.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldblog.msnbc.msn.com ...
Too bad for E. Europe, they had such promise after the wall came down.
Hungary Ping.
Pretty much reinforces my belief that a social order based on individual freedom is completely incompatible with the limitations of most human beings.
Get used to it folks . . . most of us were simply born to be peasants.
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
— Ronald Reagan
It is interesting that the Eastern European countries like Hungary that have joined the EU are falling on such hard times. I have lived here in Moldova which is between Romania and Ukraine for the past 5 years.
Only thing I can say about Moldova is “what financial crisis?” No sign of it here. Hungary, Romania, and Poland are only a few hours drive away.
I drove through Poland and western Ukraine on my way back to Moldova a week or so ago, and I saw no sign of any economic slowdown. In western Ukraine lots of construction and New shopping centers filled with customers.
I here ya but I’d still take the freedom. At least I can still blame myself if I screw up and not be totally dependant on the government.
All these people have known over there is a totalitarian state.
I haven't heard anything about them in months.
Democracy is hard. And I think that some percentage of people were indeed born to be peasants or, proles, if you prefer.
I view these things using the rule of thirds. It applies in many cases.
For example, in the US Revolutionary War, one third of the population wanted revolution, one third wanted to remain British, and one third didn’t really care either way and just wanted to plant their crops.
In this case, how badly does the one third that enjoys individualism, freedom and independence want to maintain it over the thirty percent who want the government to do everything, and the portion of the thirty percent who don’t really much care but will go along with them?
Keep in mind that this country was FOUNDED on the notion that most people were destined to be nothing more than peasants.
The founders of this country knew exactly what they were doing when they decided that voting privileges would only be extended to landowners.
I am very familiar with Hungary and visit family there frequently.
After the wall came down, Hungarians had to compete and be productive at work....something that was not required under communism. The work ethic was gone and people found working hard to make ends meet was a lousy life when communism gave them the basics (home, car, medical, etc).
These "lazy" Hungarians elected former communists back into power (running as progressives). These communists were the ones who spent, spent, spent (sounds familiar?) while the economy was contracting.
Today, Hungary is a shadow of its former self. You can find cheap hookers (who are gorgeous) and people willing to sell their children.....all thanks to policies that mirror Obama's.
Darn good question.
I guess they all starved, eh? :-P
Perhaps that’s just how God designed us?
I can show you places worse than that in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Detroit, and especially in 0bama’s home town, Chicago, and even Washington DC!
Western Massachusetts has abandoned brick mills with broken windows scattered all along the country side. If I wanted to, I could put together a montage of broken down neighborhoods and abandoned factories that would make the neighborhoods in the MessNBC presentation look upscale.
“Hungary on the Brink of Ruin”
Welcome to the club, Hungary!
When was this so? I lived in the Czech Republic for much of the 90's and always thought that Poland and the Czech Repulic were destined to be the "cadillacs" of the former Central European nations.
The current EU President, Vaclav Klaus, instituted the privatization of businesses when he was Prime Minister of the Czech Republic in the early and mid-90's. He took a lot of heat for his privatization plan. The plan wasn't implemented flawlessly and there were bumps in the road (eg the Banka Bohemia scandal--a kind of Czech version of Enron, engineered by former STB agents. The STB was the Czech KGB.). Nevertheless, Klaus's plans worked reasonably well. In the long run the Czechs are very entrepreneurial people and do well in competitive commerce--much more so than the former East Germans. Anyway, that is my impression after having lived in Prague and Dresden.
The news story may well be true, but it's a partial view. In other countries they are having hard times, but it's not as dire as described in this article.
In truth, maybe a 1/4 or 1/3 of this country cares about freedom. The other 1/3 are statists/socialists who are actively opposed to it, and the rest don’t give a rats you know what about abstract ideas like freedom. They care whether their shiny new SUV is filled with gas, there’s a big screen TV with 200 satellite channels in the living room, who will win on American Idol, etc. If the free enterprise system stops delivering those goods to them, they’re quite happy to entertain promises of other means of having those goods brought to them.
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