In response to Kocsis Tamas' statement:

>: ...East Europe lives
>: now a life neither nice nor happy but way under the living standards
>: of late communism.

Greg Grose wrote:

>Could you, please, quantify this?  Excepting the former East Germans, is it
>true
>for every EE nation?  How far below standards of late communism is, e.g.,
>Poland, and are the Poles closing the gap or not?

and he is unlikely to receive a satisfactory reply. Yet, Tamas' statement has
that disconcerting ring of truth about it which, as so often, statistics
are not quite capable of dealing with.

It is certainly the impression I get from friends (in their forties) and
relatives (older) in Hungary.

One must not forget how difficult and sensitive we (Hungarians) can be. Under
communism, Hungary was indisputably in the top league. Since its demise, the
standard of reference has moved to (seemingly) unattainable heights.

It is too easy to exhort them to live up to this new challenge although that
is regrettably what one should do for lack of alternatives. Unfettered
capitalism may have one effect in China and another in Hungary (and other EE
countries).

One recalls with a sad smile: "extra Hungariam non est vita, sic est vita,
non est ita".

Tisztelettel,

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Name: tiha von ghyczy
E-mail: 
Date: 09/09/95
Charlottesville, Va.
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