Romanians complain more about their country than people from Africa, Syria or Afganistan. Most pessimistic bunch ever.
Not that life in Romania is excelent, but the Romanians who complain a lot only look at Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, etc and forget most of the world has it vastly worse than them.
I'm talking about in-person complaining as I met a lot of people from those countries and none complained as much as Romanians. And assuming those people don't have internet is just silly.
Living in Romania is not that bad if you make enough money but living there with the median income is complicated that's why many of us are living abroad.
Quality of life has increased dramatically since the 90s though.
It's noticeably improving, though! Over the last 10 years or so, both their GDP per capita and household income per capita have roughly doubled. Now when I visit medium-sized cities there I am amazed to find latte-slinging coffee shops and craft beer-pouring gastropubs that would look right at home in Brooklyn.
>Now when I visit medium-sized cities there I am amazed to find latte-slinging coffee shops and craft beer-pouring gastropubs that would look right at home in Brooklyn.
True, but that's not an accurate measurement of the quality of life or income of the average Romanian. They're are just businesses serving an afluent urban clientele (mostly corporate/IT workers and other high income people) that's like what 10% of the național population or something but overly represented in much higher proportions in the big cities.
Go to the smaller cities or villages and you'll see a different picture: lots of people with precarious education, unemployed or making minimum wage in dead-end jobs and living paycheck to paycheck unable to afford to fix broken teeth, hospitals and schools falling apart, etc.
The country's still much better to live in (especially in the 5 big cities) than what the average of the planet has to deal with, but there's a reason why statistically it's at the bottom of the EU charts. Tech workers sipping gourmet coffee in the big cities are the exception but don't represent the norm.
Pros (imo): Daily essentials not-yet commodified, can access amazing produce for cheap. Geopolitically stable, crime is mostly petty or white collar. Nature.
Cons (imo): no progressive tax rate, effective ~50% tax on income unless you want to do tax evasion (Romanian past-time), very likely to die on the road as public transit is in a state of disrepair, choice of healthcare between expensive and inefficient private sector, or a public sector where you have to bribe your way to not contracting infections while getting treated for something else.
Interesting, I found the private sector to be better there than in western Europe. Much quicker, easier and cheaper to get a cehck-up, MRI, CT scan, physiotherapy, dentistry, etc.
Not having a progressive tax is a feature, not a bug. If a progressive tax would be introduced, I'd either start avoid taxes in any way possible, or I'd seriously think about emigration. Because yes, the rich always finds ways to evade taxes, while the middle class gets screwed. And I'm also not interested in subsidizing the poor.
The total taxes you pay on a regular work contract are around 41.5%, and much of that goes to pensions. Many people in the gig economy, that haven't contributed, will wake up one day to a harsh reality.
The public healthcare system mostly works, even if underfunded and with problems. In Bucharest we benefited from treatments and expertise that would be very expensive out of pocket or difficult to find. Private healthcare is mostly a hoax, much like private education (in this country), stop paying for it.
Bribery is much less common. Still happens, but you can also get in trouble.
We barely have any homeless people, all the shopping malls are full, and home ownership is very high. Official stats can be misleading.
Our politicians are incompetents, that's true, but we are in NATO, we are in EU, we are a regional power, and we avoided far-right strongmen or communists thus far.
Many Romanians have emigrated, lifting the economy actually, and also many came back. Since the shock of the 90s, the country's economy became really fluid.
Unfortunately, Romanians are some of the most pessimist people.
> The total taxes you pay on a regular work contract are around 41.5%, and much of that goes to pensions.
With VAT on each purchase (unless you're not living month to month, and are able to set aside some of your income) the effective taxation is closer to 60%.
I don't want to go into the topic of why I think progressive taxation is better than what we have now, but I wanted to raise this point because many stop at the tax rate on their salary.
Pensions in Romania are a joke, ask your relatives that recently retired.
Can I remind you that out of the immediate survivors of the Colectiv fire, 70% of them contracted hospital-acquired infections? (Which were conveniently overlooked by the coroner)
Private healthcare is a hoax that most employers can and will redirect their contribution to, further increasing the hole in which the public sector is getting into.
Bribery isn’t less common, it’s just becoming increasingly inaccessible to common folk. Police is still in cahoots with “businessmen”. Health and safety authorisations are still handed out like hotcakes to the ones in the inner circle. -> https://www.romania-insider.com/investigations-and-dismissal...
Our malls are full but industry is dead. We’re a consumer economy
We’re part of NATO, oh so proud of it, yet barely scrape together an impotent 1.6% of GDP for our defence. Our navy is in such bad state that in NATO joint exercises foreign soldiers training with us thought our ship was on fire (it wasn’t, just badly maintained and burning with a thick black smoke).
I also find it funny that you say we “avoided communists” and “home ownership is high” in the same breath. I wonder why home ownership is that high, and what policy lead to that.
>Can I remind you that out of the immediate survivors of the Colectiv fire, 70% of them contracted hospital-acquired infections
That is indeed terrible, but as another who emigrated west I realized, malpraxis is rampant here as well, it just doesn't make it into the news as much. Incompetent doctors and medical whoopsies can kill me here as well even if the system is overall better.
> Pensions in Romania are a joke, ask your relatives that recently retired.
Both my parents have decent pensions. It's directly proportional to your contributions. Small lifetime contributions, small pension. Nowadays, a part of those contribution also gets invested, and my current net worth would actually allow me to retire right now.
> Bribery isn’t less common, it’s just becoming increasingly inaccessible to common folk.
Bribery being less accessible literally means that it's less common, but maybe we aren't speaking the same language. Local police is more corruptible, but try bribing DIICOT, see how well that works out. Also, in general, there have been many cases in which people got caught taking bribes, so, depending on who you try bribing, you can be kicked out of the room, or contacted by authorities.
Colective was a tragedy. But it was also a hyped news story by all tabloids. My son suffered from Lylle's syndrome when he was 1-year-old, also treated at one of the hospitals where they treat burned victims. He was also born premature at 30 weeks with 1.2 Kg. My mother was operated for acute pancreatitis, which at that time had a 70% death rate. I have an aunt that's a cancer survivor. Both me and my father had several surgeries in our public hospitals. And I don't practice bribery. Take from this what you will.
> "Our malls are full but industry is dead. We’re a consumer economy"
Yet we are producing and exporting more than ever, with the GDP going through the roof, adjusted for inflation. What in the world is a "consumer economy" anyway?
I hear these same words from my father, a common myth, but he has the excuse that he was a communist party member. What's yours?
> "I also find it funny that you say we “avoided communists” and “home ownership is high” in the same breath. I wonder why home ownership is that high, and what policy lead to that."
During communism home ownership was nearly zero, as everything was owned by the state. And nowadays Bucharest is in the top cities when it comes to affordable housing when reported to the number of average salaries needed to buy a home. City planning is poor, nearly non-existent in places, but Romania builds plenty of housing, which makes it affordable, with some exceptions.
Do you still live in Romania? And if you do, do you know the country you're living in? :-)
It really depends on your personality. If you're used to the niceties of the west, you may be frustrated by many things in Romania. The infrastructure is still behind. If you're more laid back you adapt and learn to enjoy. Being healthy helps a lot.
