Dan Alexe on the adaptable Eastern Europeans

The Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev has argued that Romania and Bulgaria are in a better position to overcome the crisis because they are used to cinching in their belts. Dan Alexe argues in the daily România Liberă that Eastern Europeans are as a whole better prepared than Western Europeans: "Romanians and Bulgarians are so accustomed to instability and living from day to day that they've perfected techniques for socio-economic survival which the Western Europeans haven't had to use since World War II. The Western Europeans cling unbendingly to their habits, feeling that they're entitled to their social benefits from the cradle to the grave. The Eastern Europeans have resigned themselves to the fact that if they get something from the state it's only a favour, and that everything is only temporary anyway. In addition they're protected by their thick skin. As a result the crisis wreaks less havoc in the subconscious of Romanians and Bulgarians since they feel less disappointment and less humiliation than people like the Greeks, who fell from on high."

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