The Eastern European Experiment

In this episode of Live Players, Erik Torenberg and Samo Burja dive deep into the complex transformation of Eastern Europe since the fall of communism. They discuss the region's economic evolution from small business-driven economies to potential tech hubs, examine how countries like Poland balance traditional values with Western influences, and analyze the impact of EU integration. Samo offers predictions about Eastern Europe's economic growth, social changes, and geopolitical alignments, providing a comprehensive look at one of Europe's most dynamic regions and its place on the global stage.

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(00:00) Intro
(00:28) Diving into Eastern Europe
(00:48) Old Europe vs. New Europe
(02:06) Political and cultural divides
(02:22) Nuclear energy and policy differences
(03:37) Immigration policies and economic impact
(05:41) Economic growth in Eastern Europe
(07:41) Demographic challenges and migration
(08:47) Western Europe's dependency on Eastern Europe
(11:45) Taxation and business environment
(15:07) Sponsors: Babbel | Brave
(22:19) Small business and political landscape
(24:04) Education and credentialism
(27:46) Comparing nationalism and economic models in Europe
(28:33) Generational shifts in Eastern Europe
(29:46) Gender norms and education in Eastern Europe
(34:46) Westernization and cultural convergence
(36:59) Future economic and social trends in Eastern Europe
(39:13) Influence of American ideology and media
(53:08) Geopolitical dynamics and defense industry
(55:14) Wrap

[airrik]

This is a hidden gem on YouTube! But somehow I stumbled upon it...😊

[HouseJawn]

This was an excellent analysis, i knew nothing about eastern Europe! Thank you 😊

[k.s.]

Going from Berlin to Warsaw feels like you’re going from a less developed country to a more developed one. Very interesting and I would have never predicted that.

[WalllFlllower]

"Abolishing gender to prove our power over the universe" 🤣🤣🤣

[yourenotmartin]

Great video, fascinating stuff but 1 thing: I'm Bulgarian and at around 40:10 mark you say smaller east eu countries don't have market big enough for dubbing - that's utterly ridiculous, in Bulgaria I despise when they dub movies cuz they do it A LOT. Not all but on major channels almost all foreign ones are dubbed. Having that said almost all native young people here including myself do speak English fairly well which is not true for my parents generation

[arktseytlin]

Restricting movement in the Eastern European countries after decades behind Iron Curtain was absolutely not an option. Freedom is more valuable that economy.

[vmasing]

Among 3 Baltic countries it's actually Latvia not Estonia that has the biggest ethnic Russian population with the lowest assimilation rate -- and thus the biggest potential to suffer the most should Russia activate their political destabilization campaign.
But that's details, he's still _directionally_ 100% correct.

The reason why Latvia was the main target for Stalin's Russification efforts -- he tried to split the Baltic trio into half (Latvia is the middle one) and sort of "reach the Baltic sea" for the Russian Empire. Another, smaller, belt of imported Russian population is on the northern coast of Estonia -- prolly to separate it from the "evil capitalist Finland".

People don't realize how intentional the colonization is for the Empires. There's nothing accidental in it, it's perfected to almost an art form. An Empire, especially the continental one like Russia lives in the ever lastin rythm of invasions (when it's on the top of it's strength) followed by the time of "digesting" the ingested populations. Followed by a phase of invasions, followed by colonization efforts, followed by... and so forever.

Or until it's destroyed -- whichever comes first.

[advocate]

I teach at a major uk university. It is ONLY my eastetn european students who are consistently capable of critical thinking

[SlovenskiSin]

Would love to see a standalone episode about Slovenia, presented as a perfect endgame case (canary in a goldmine?) for what EU policies achieved since 2004. Its size is perfect for a laboratory where a live player could quickly demonstrate what kind of result above that is possible. If an above-average result can’t be achieved for a city-state-sized population of 2 million within a decade (in either case), what hope and timeline is there for nations with 20 or 200 million people?

[tomstarwalker]

Finland has a 2023 TFR of 1.26 with IVF, and around 0.85 without.

[cyber_spock]

Woah shit. Samo always dropping bombs "[College] in my opinion is a zero-sum exercise of limited utility to society." LMFAO. Please never change Samo. I'll listen to every single live players episode you ever produce.

[GdzieJestNemo]

in general agree, but there's bit of odd inaccuracies. I will keep it limited to Poland as i'm native and i'm most familiar with.
Western Europe is subsidizing "eastern european" economies - just check how many big companies can you name from the region - entire regions' GDP in Poland is carried by Dutch, German or French companies. After 30 years there's hardly any domestic company coming from the region. Migration wise people coming back is insignificant, it's only mentioned as it's odd to see people actually coming back at all. We are ones using progressive taxation. Economically we are heavily social and state centered model (that is common in all old block i believe). From cultural points - american university type progressivism pretty much doesn't exist. That entire section from 46:00 to around 52:00 is pure delusional nonsense.

[edwarddench]

Echoing what George Friedman has been saying for years

[Fredosphere]

"... and they're all slightly overweight." Ouch!

[Povhc]

Its true in east europe or at least Slovenia ppl are now politically and culturally Americans. It is not only young people actually. I wont lie i am also in this box. Its quite sad. We lost ourselves.

Funny thing does who are ortho anti usa are most amercan-like.

[flickney]

1. Transnistria will not make any sudden moves as long as Russia doesn't reach (and manage to hold) Odesa, so not anytime soon. They're literally surrounded by Ukraine and Moldova, and they don't have the manpower or the willpower to act without any direct material assistance from the Russian Army. The oligarchs in Transnistria do have a sense of self-preservation.

2. It's crazy to put Romania into the same bucket as most of the Balkans, but maybe he just hasn't seen the latest stats.

[TylerDurden-pkkm]

The development of the gender differences are very easy to explain - and are in no way special to eastern Europe. It simply shows revealed preferences.

If times are hard and the only way to obtain status for women are through "hard sciences" and engineering: They choose these careers once societies are wealthy enough to also educate women in these subjects.
But once the society becomes richer, and the women can obtain sufficient status/wealth in other ways, they no longer do it and pursue carriers in fields they prefer - usually softer topics as mentioned.

[UVStudio]

Didn't cover China's influence on Eastern Europe?

[Vasile]

Would love to see some links to all this "truth" told by this dude. It is clear his info is lacking.

[m_ke]

I have no idea where this guy got the idea that any side of the political spectrum in Poland is embracing libertarianism. Konfederacja is the only party that pretends to be fiscally libertarian but they have very little support, PiS is more fiscally socialist than Bernie Sanders while socially more conservative than evangelicals in the US and PO is typical centrist neolib