“Let’s not forget that Argentina or Uruguay were rich countries in not too distant historical times,” Ivo Budil reminds us, and when we think about it, we shudder. What Professor Budil is talking about is an economic and social model where the vast majority of the population is kept in appalling poverty and chaos, with no way out. Behind the barbed wire then lives a narrow layer of the rich in luxury residences, who are mostly engaged in sucking off the majority or helping some multinational corporation plunder local resources. It turns out to be a very stable system in the long run once a country falls into it, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to break out of it. We can mock Venezuelan socialism, but the fact is that before socialism, the people of Venezuela were no better off.
But then multinational corporations came in, learned to buy local politicians, learned to change local politics through Brussels and Washington..
Indeed, a possible scenario is emerging that within a single generation of politics a la the current government, the Czech Republic and other Central European countries will fall into exactly such a regime. Even the Latinos didn’t need more time to do it. It is not the only scenario, and probably not the most likely, but it is not impossible either.
By the way, note that the current decline of Central Europe is taking place despite the fact that the local people are more industrious than Western Europeans and were also a class above educated at the end of the communist period. Back in the mid-1990s, there was talk of economic tigers. But then multinational corporations came in, learned to buy local politicians, learned to change local politics through Brussels and Washington… and the results are already showing.
