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Why is Romania so poor?

I went down to London a few weeks ago and saw how the Indian Romanian beggars were all sleeping rough in the central parts of the city and wondered why Romania is so poor that they have to resort to this in England?

Romania is a western european country and they make it look like they come from a developing country. I find it a mystery. What's wrong with the Romanian economy because we don't hear about it much, not like Greece or Spain.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 1

Dux_Helvetica

First of all, Gypsies aren't really ethnic Romanians. They are a historically nomadic ethnic group who are particularly concentrated in eastern Europe.

Why is Romania poor? Well, historically it was a poor feudal province at the intersection of the Ottoman and Austrian empires. Then it fell into fascism, and then another form of quasi-fascism that was superficially 'communist'. Then, thrown into unfettered capitalism, it hasn't fared much better. The poor remain poor, and a small wealthy class has arisen since the early 90s.

We don't judge Romania on the same terms as we judge Greece or Spain, because the latter two have contributed to our conception of 'Europe' and the 'West' by their respective periods of historical ascendancy (namely the Classical Era and the 15th/16th centuries). Romania has always been more on the fringes of western civilisation.