I don't understand your point, poverty in Eastern Europe has fallen tremendously after the switch to capitalism, but you're saying it has nothing to do with it?
Inequalities might have risen a bit though, I don't know.
yeah, he really cut his own branch very efficiently... we had central planning (with heavy guidance from those fckers from Moscow that invaded us in '68) that just didn't work in long term. People were considering bananas and oranges exotic hard-to-get stock in shops with empty shelves. I recall my parents standing 2 hour queues in crazy weekend hours in -15 Celsius just to get their son some fruit with vitamin C (or fresh bread).
Capitalism ain't perfect, far from it, but what we had here was a major clusterfck, no thank you. And what changed is move to open economy, call it capitalism if you want. With its own warts and issues, but much better overall.
Previous regime got the worst out of people, this at least tries to do the opposite.
Compared to Brazil where people starve to death, life expectancy is way lower, educational standards, medical standards, virtually every social measurement is way lower.
Capitalism ain't perfect, far from it, but what we had here was a major clusterfck, no thank you. And what changed is move to open economy, call it capitalism if you want. With its own warts and issues, but much better overall.
Previous regime got the worst out of people, this at least tries to do the opposite.