[baybal2]

> You can live like a king with those kinds of salaries in Bulgaria, but you'll be surrounded by shitty infrastructure, non-existing government and all other types of shit that people like me that have left don't want to deal with.

No roads? Why not to build one?

Road building was synonymic with mafia from even before the USSR collapse in Russia.

So, my father, back in mid-late nineties simply imported equipment from China, hired labourers, built the road for our village for 1/8th of what the mafia asked, and then sold the equipment on the open market.

Money is power. Don't be ashamed to use it for the right cause.

[pdabbadabba]

I hate to say it but, if this is really what happened, it is only because the local mafia was ineffective. Normally, mafias have a lot of well known and often unpleasant ways of keeping rivals off their turf.

[codeisawesome]

I think one would run into trouble with the local hard-power gatekeepers in most places with this approach. I believe South Africa had a problem where activists tried to improve water supply infra but got blocked by the local government (which was and is doing a terrible job).

[baybal2]

Why not then just buy off these local bureaucrats to make them f... off and let you do their job?

Second, if it comes to "hard-power gatekeepers," $1000-$2000 a months buys you employment of a local toughboy ready to receive punches, and deliver punches for you.

A successful IT business can probably really throw its weight around when it comes to somebody trying to "наехать"

[pdabbadabba]

> Second, if it comes to "hard-power gatekeepers," $1000-$2000 a months buys you employment of a local toughboy ready to receive punches, and deliver punches for you.

Sure, but at this point isn't your advice just "why not bribe government officials and go to war with the mafia"? Sure, someone could do that. But...maybe we can imagine reasons why they would be reluctant to do so?

One notable failure mode of this strategy would be: mafia guy shows up at your house and hits you with a hammer until you're no longer able to/interested in continuing to pursue this strategy.

[heavenlyblue]

Well or you could just migrate to a country where you don’t need to наехать