A new report claims that 50 million children in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union live in poverty, and that more than 160 million people — a full 40 percent of the region’s population — live in poverty. In some former Soviet Republics, such as Kyrgyzstan, up to 88 percent of the population is in poverty. What happened?

The bottom line is that the transition from a communist dictatorship to democratic forms of government went very badly. European Children’s Trust, which issued the report, blames privatization and the lack of price controls, but the bottom line is that in large measure privatization Eastern Europe simply transferred assets from the state to the very same corrupt bureaucrats who were ran the economy before the collapse of the USSR. Corruption has been endemic in Eastern Europe as well.

Which is why the European Children’s Trust’s recommendation for more aid to Eastern Europe seems so bizarre. Have they bothered to look at what happened to the last large amount of foreign aid the West sent to Eastern Europe? Much of it ended up in the bank accounts of corrupt officials. Future aid would likely end up the same and only help prop up and reward such corruption.

Eastern Europe’s position is not going to get better until people there decide to throw the bums out, punish official corruption and require accountability of their political leaders.

Source:

Child poverty soars in eastern Europe. The BBC, October 11, 2000.

Poverty ‘Great Depression’ sweeps eastern Europe. CNN, October 12, 2000.

The Eastern Europe’s Problems Worsening by Brian Carnell, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.