Estonia's Booming Economy

[GMScud]

Interesting example of austerity in a time where the rest of the Euro-Zone is reeling.

News Headlines

[Monksdown]

I'm sure there is a direct correlation to my sister being the number 2 prostitute in all of Estonia.

[firstdown]

Funny how cutting gov. spending and dept seems to fix things. The same things they tried to fix with spending.

After three years of painful government belt-tightening, that’s not exactly the message that Europeans further south want to hear.

At a recent conference of European and North American lawmakers in Tallinn, Koppel was lambasted by French and Italian parliamentarians when he suggested Europeans had to prepare for an “inevitable” decline in living standards, wages and job security, in order for their countries to escape from the debt crisis.

[Monksdown]

A former soviet entity with the population of San Diego being able to stomach lifestyle changes isnt necessarily apples to oranges when comparing to a society like Greece with 11 million citizens. Welcome to hardship Greece.

News Flash: Broad socialist political platforms dont work.

It sets a nice example for the remainder of the world. Sometimes medicine is best served large and fast.

[dmek25]

With a population of 1.29 million, it is one of the least-populous members of the European Union, Eurozone and NATO.
comparing this to the US is a joke

[SmootSmack]

I’ll Gladly Pay You Tuesday | Hoover Institution

[mlmpetert]

President of Estonia Rips Paul Krugman: 'Smug, Overbearing and Patronizing' | NewsBusters.org

[saden1]

It is easier for a man with nothing to lose everything. Curious, what is their defense budget and how much of it did they slash?

I'm all for emulating their austerity measures across the board at every level. Who is with me?

[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by saden1

It is easier for a man with nothing to lose everything. Curious, what is their defense budget and how much of it did they slash?

I'm all for emulating their austerity measures across the board at every level. Who is with me?

I am!

I did a quick search and their defense budget is about 2% of GDP while ours is about 4%. Extremely quick search and i have no idea how accurate those numbers are or what they are/arnt inclusive of.

A reason why i could never consider myself a Republican is because of their foreign policy. It always upsets me when Republicans shun big government at home while championing it overseas. Creating massive agencies to police the world and spending massively to fund those operations is flat out dreadful to me.

As un-American, problem causing and unfair i find our entitlement and welfare programs, i feel exactly the same about our foreign policy programs. Both ideologies are just as flawed.

And demk25 is right, the comparision is a joke considering the scale. Another thing is Estonia hasnt been time tested at all. As their ship rightens (pun?) lets see if they dont fall in the trap of expanding social programs that are just mere reflections of prosperous times while lacking long term forethought.

If we want to aim for pleasing both sides of political thought we should model ourselves after Switzerland. Theyve had perhaps the most stable economy and politcal climate over the last 100 years despite the turmoil thats surrounded them over that same time period.

[SmootSmack]

When was Estonia compared to the US? I think I missed that