In Darwin Bulgarians (Do Not) Trust

Novinite Insider » EDITORIAL | Author: Milena Hristova |November 29, 2011, Tuesday // 21:29
Bulgaria: In Darwin Bulgarians (Do Not) Trust

In the never-ending annals about Europe's debt crisis, Bulgaria normally does not feature visibly. But recent suggestions that the poorest country in the European Union could escape the financial crisis unscathed thanks to - surprise, surprise – its weakness have left me grinding my teeth in frustration.

Is a transformation of Darwin's "survival of the fittest" into a "survival of the weakest" theory possible? Hardly, even in the world of economics.

Some of the points of the new weird theory however have been reasonable. Unlike its neighbors Bulgarians were spared radical austerity programs, which are implemented to help the economy pick up. Bulgaria's economy was driven by rising exports. Its debt-to-GDP ratio is low.

But that sounded reassuring ten months ago.

Now Bulgaria's economic recovery has slowed to the weakest over the last four quarters. The forecast is gloomy as the euro crisis dents demand for Bulgarian exports. Consumer spending shrinks too. Savings are the only thing on the rise, but the joy those figures bring is undermined by the fact that the lion's share of the stashed money is in the hands of a meager 5% of the population.

Truth is Finance Minister Djankov's belt-tightening policy created the illusion of a healthy economy on the back of the people. The average Bulgarian is three times poorer than the average EU citizen and is just getting poorer.

Bulgaria's economy is free falling and it is only a question of time for it to translate into a heavily stratified society.

Bulgaria can hardly boast of having a market economy. Its economy is built on political circles, upon which the economic circles rise.

The model could eventually – as I have recently warned in another article - come close to a feudal society, in which the boss and his closest aides are well off, bossing around the thousands of dependent and equal ordinary citizens.

True, the most serious problems in the eurozone have been triggered by and are now concentrated among the old members of the eurozone and the euro bloc as a whole. True, Bulgaria is a country with healthy figures, which sounds nice to the bureaucrats even though they know very well people here are suffering and the country can neither heal nor kill the European Union.

But to say that Bulgaria will come out of the crisis as a winner and be cited as an example is baffling, at least my, logic.

Nip/Tuck seems to sum up best Djankov's philosophy - a great philosophy if you don't care about the human cost and know that you can leave the sinking ship at any moment.

The state will survive, but what about its people?

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Tags: European Union, Bulgaria, economy, Eurozone

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