If only they knew…
Knew what?
What was to come after the 89 revolution.
A little over a decade of economic stagnation, a massive flow of money and power from “the state” (the oligarchs) to private citizens (oligarchs, sometimes new ones), and years of privatization, austerity, and general kleptocracy against public goods…
Then one of the fastest growing economies in Europe, with a good standard of living, and insane rates of home ownership and some of the best and cheapest Internet in the world.
The dictatorship was overwhelmingly bad though it had some positive, socialist traits. What Romania is today is much better with some bad capitalist traits. People in the country sometimes look back to the communist days with nostalgia. Others got stuck in the post-communist bleakness and never saw that their country moved forward past them.
Much better now? Yes, of course.
But getting here was tough, especially the first few transition years. They were bad enough to crush people’s high hopes about freedom.
Corruption however is still rampant, the education and healthcare systems are in decline and I doubt I’ll ever get to see any of the money the government is taking out of my salary for when I retire…
As someone who grew up in Romania post 89 you don’t have a clue how horrible life was under Ceausescu. Like no idea.
