Lessons From Georgia
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- Опубліковано 23 сер 2021
- Georgia (the ex-Soviet Republic, not the U.S. state) is now ahead of the United States in economic freedom!
Can Americans learn from its example?
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My producer Maxim Lott spent months in Georgia to find out.
Georgia was extremely poor about 20 years ago. The country suffered from Soviet occupation and communist mismanagement for more than half a century. After that, brutal civil wars wrecked the country.
But then, an eccentric libertarian multi-millionaire became economy minister, with nearly free reign to make "Everything private, as much as possible."
Half of the government agencies were abolished. Licensing was cut, and a 20% flat tax was instituted.
This led to an economic boom, Georgian member of Parliament Zurab Japaridze tells Maxim Lott. The country's economy grew 10% a year.
But the country still has many problems. You can watch the video above for the full story.
But if government stayed away from business, and had minimal regulation, then how would politicians ever get rich? Don't you care about career politicians and their families?
Bernie needs another mansion.
As much as I care for any parasite.
my city goes to middle class parts of the city every year and make them fix "broken" sidewalks
KEK
No one should.
What I don’t get is why don’t more Americans listen to people from these countries? We should be #1 in the world for economic freedom, but politicians here love a government controlled economy. It’s scary that a country that was formerly part of the USSR is more economically free than the USA!
It's not about economics. It's about power. Some government officials want communism because it means they can control people.
Lol, people do want freedom, they want freedom to form unions and negotiate with corporations, but they can't cause if they try to they starve. We traded one master for another, the problem is all the retards who watch these videos have fallen for the globalists "free-market" propaganda.
it's simple like said in the video "whether you want to take responsibility about your life, or you are fine with being a slave and having some kind of a master who will provide you with all your basic needs"
the key here is "personal responsibility", which is anethema to americans today. the government we have is a result of the people. the people don't want to be responsible for themselves and keep voting bigger and bigger government.
@@dylanc9145 stf and come here to argentina to expirence real socialism.
@@nazarenogabrielmasetto9568 Thank you.
During a trip to Georgia earlier this year, I was stuck there for 2 months because of covid situations. I was very confused at how the country seemed very incoherent: on one side they had aspects of an advanced country with impressive buildings, malls, international brands, etc.. On the other, there was a lot of randomness like unfinished projects next to finished big ones, random houses next to amazing housing complexes, etc... This video explains it perfectly: Less government, massive growth, then big government again and its usual failures, it all makes sense to me finally. True lessons to be learned.
no this video doesn’t explain anything. it’s absolutely misleading. Georgia was doing ok up until 2007, when it had Russia’s subsidies, trade, and tourism. Today they are border line bankrupt with only Turkey as the only main investor. A very few Georgians are better off today than they were during the USSR.
You gotta understand that Former government was Pro Western and very americanized.
Current government is a Russian plant, owned by a Russian Oligarch, so all the progress done by the previous government was reverted.
We live in the same Soviet like model that we did when USSR was a thing. Government mandates everything now. You can't do anything without paying a bribe to someone.
@@Hella333 I am sorry but this is not true. There was more investment from Russia and more Russian tourists in Georgia in 2019 (pre-COVID) than in 2007.
@@darthirakli yes it’s true. perhaps on some individual level there are investments here and there, but Russia imposed embargo on goods from Georgia and stopped all the projects. I think it was partially lifted, but markets were taken. Tourism today is 40% lower than 2007 and that’s an increase. They used to have open borders, but now require visas and there are no embassies. In addition to having friends there, I go by IMF and World Bank data.
@@MrSedrack you must be joking. Are you saying your French president is a Russian stooge? lol I’d stipulate that Georgia is run by foreign powers, but defiantly not Russian. The government should be pro Georgian.
If you really want to screw something up, hand it over to the government
A good example of this is that several US states have to subsidize their gambling industry (lottery).
California legalized cannibis so they could tax it like hell and that's what they did. Now many of the shops are closing due to high taxes placed on them by govt so now the California govt is going to spend $100 million in tax payer money to "bail" out the industry they themselves destroyed. Talk about failure.
Same type of control freaks always emerge to seek positions of power just in order to impose their will (no matter how insane) on others.
Why aren't we doing this in the us?
Time to fire the bureaucracy!
It's a shame Trump used a leaf skimmer!
The Bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.......Damn who said that? smart SOB.
They're too entrenched for that and it's not their fault it's those in the leadership and stupid regulations that give them the power
Because of swamp creatures being in charge …
Never will happen.
States need to fire the Federal government in its entirety.
It's been nothing short of catstophic the past 50 years
Who knew that less government means less corruption.
Well, lots of people but you will not learn about them in public schools for some odd reason....
I'm shocked Stossel is talking about my little country 🇬🇪🇬🇪🇬🇪
What is the sentiment there right now to free markets? How have you all been with the rona and government response?
@@allie8442 Contrary to what the video might portray, most people my age, 25, are against private companies especially foreign nationals, purchasing and owning land. Understand that Georgia is a very small country with a 1000 year history of occupation up to present day with Abkhazia and Ossetia. With that said it is extremely easy to buy houses or open a buisness with essentially no taxation as a citizen. I think the biggest thing holding us back is the unwillingness to let nieghborly Turky, or brotherly Europe to really invest and create wealth by building factories and creating jobs. Many people go without work or live on 100 dollars a month salary. It should also be noted that Georgian priorities are far estrayed from what Stossel, Americans, or Europeans hold to be of most importance. Preservation of our land, heritage and families come before work, buisness or politics 😁
@@Tsirkvava i would feel your history is more than 1,000 years, no?
@@timurermolenko2013 yes brother, georgian tribes have been in South Caucasian Mountains since the beginning of mankind.
@@Tsirkvava your language belongs to a group that no other languages belong. Highlanders tend to be conservative. I kind of like the idea of preservation of heritage more than American job driven lifestyle. libertarianism would probably fit well a society that lived in villages separated by mountains from each other. But due to urbanization, the world becomes more and more uniform everywhere :0
Hard to compete against the biggest monopoly of all… Government.
Stossel fan from Australia.
Much love to my beleaguered colleagues.
I’m so sorry to hear what’s happening to you guys. Make sure you resist and defend yourself from tyranny.
@@AmoralPhat40oz
Thankyou, fortunately for me I'm in the west but I feel far from safe!
@Uncle Step-dad
A shelter in Victoria to deter people from traveling to adopt I think!
@@Allangulon It was in NSW in Cobar. Greetings from Adelaide.
@@freightliner_86
My bad, it sounds like something Dan Andrews would encourage.
Yes to less government. A thousand times YES
I was in Georgia this for business. Tbilisi is a great city. 🇬🇪 🇬🇧
Georgia is a great country!
I live here currently due to danger of being political activist at my homeland.
Big respect to the Girchi party and to Zurab!
where are you from originally?
@@DBV-iu1qw Russia
Well, stop taking money from NGOs to overthrow your government and maybe you wouldn't have to fear being arrested. I would bet Georgians are not too fond of you flying rainbow flags in their country either.
@@MrZigan4ik based russian libertarian.
@@DBV-iu1qw lol he's like the opposite of based.
The real issue is "we" as Americans don't teach our children how free markets work. Instead we're focusing on Gender Studies, Inclusiveness, everyone is owed equitable outcomes. We are heading to the brink very very fast and there is always room for more useful idiots to prop up people like "the squad".
Who is "the squad"?
@@AlexanderBogdanow AOC and company.
Parents are to blame for everything we see going on today. I taught all 3of my kids the principles of free markets and competition and they all do very well now I’m on to the 3 grandkids. Stop relying on “Teachers” to to “Teach” what you should be teaching yourself.Personal responsibility, critical thinking skills, and competition is the backbone of building a child into a strong prosperous adult
It's taught in schools. But we're taught the idealistic textbook definitions of different types of government. Not the corruption that will eat away at different systems and the dangers of the government or corporations having too much power and influence over the lives of individuals.
A class in Economics should be required before graduating from high school
Today is Ukrainian Independence Day🇺🇦 we love Georgia very much.
We love you back 🇬🇪🇺🇦 Slava Ukraini
Independence from who if I could ask?
@@arthasmenethil2201 Gee, if only there was a way to find that out for yourself 😒
Huge admire from Taiwan to both Ukraine and Georgia. Huge respect.
@@tjulers respect for Taiwan as well. We have the same problems from the big brother neighbors. I was so ashamed when I found out Georgia was the only country that does not recognize Taiwanese passports. Hope we are able to change our anti-freedom government soon and then we can also start allowing Taiwanese people to come to our country as well.
Stossels Is the best . A true liberal who stands for minimum government and individual freedom .
Love from India 🇮🇳🇮🇳
🇺🇸❤️🇮🇳
Minimum government is like minimum cancer and ends the same way every time.
Man, if India would embrace free trade and free markets, it would become the world dominating power….
Minimum Government means huge poverty and a few super Rich People
@@Castiel667 it already did long bang
"We diminished the number of agencies by half"
THERE you go!
Halfway there!
IMO, Georgia reverted back to some gov control because the people in the gov saw all the money passing hands…just not their hands. Therefore, more gov = more $ for people in gov.
Exactly. AOC and the other members of the firing Squad make close to $200,000 annual salary.
I was in Georgia in 2016 for a business trip. The people couldn’t have shown more acceptance and excitement towards helping them to grow.
I literally can’t believe John did a video about my country of Georgia. Thanks so much Mr Stossel. Love from Tbilisi and New Jersey, I guess?
I want to visit! Can I stay at your place?
But you believe what’s in a video? If you love Tbilisi, you should know they are in a poor state today.
აბა, რას ვიფიქრებდი სტოსელი რო საქართველოზე სიუჟეტს გააკეთებდა :D
@@Hella333 Yes definitely certain parts are a lot poorer than others. Specifically Rustaveli, Saburtalo, and the western part of Vake are wealthier than parts like Vera and the southern tip which is near to Rustaveli and what is considered "Kala Garet" or Rural Georgia. The one thing I have to disagree about this video is about Saakashvili, he definitely is a slimy politician and some Georgian people say that he's a hero to the economy but he's pretty pathetic guy.
I'm not gonna go on a rant here. Anyway yes Tbilisi is still nothing compared Baku or Antalya
Love from Kutaisi, and... Pennsylvania 😉😉😉
As a Georgian, I agree with everything in this video, except ONE thing. Georgian tea is NOT bad, it is in fact some of the finest tea in the world. The reason that Georgian Soviet tea was bad, was because of the substandard soviet ways of harvesting tea, which favoured quantity over quality. Under Capitalism, the Georgian tea industry is now once again excelling, thanks to the free market.
Georgian economy was growing 10% a year, the russians saw that Georgians can live much better than without their occupation, so they invaded them in 2008.
Bezmenov is a hero 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
You're right! Russia did same in Ukraine.
Russia had already "invaded" Georgia in the 1990s when they "somewhat" helped form the "independent country" of "Abkhazia". But yes they did also do the same thing in Ukraine with the "Dohnstesk People's Republic" in Donbass, Ukraine and in the "Republic of Crimea" and they had also previously done a similar thing to "Transnistria" in Moldova by forming the "Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic" aka "Transnistria" which is currently dominated by the Communist Party and so it's no wonder as to why these breakaway states are poorer than the country that used to "occupy" their land...
@@wclifton968gameplaystutorials if you have mentioned Russia in the last sentence, then, i should say the one thing that in Russia, GDP per capita is approximately to 10.000 dollars.
@@tsotne2896 what I meant is that the breakaway states such as Transnistria or Abkhazia or the Dohnstesk People's Republic tend to be poorer than than the country they split on so each listed is poorer than Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine but I did not mean that former USSR constitutents are poorer than Russia such as Georgia, Slovakia, Estonia, Albania, etc. but I can see why you thought I said that since I wasn't very clear to begin with...
Animal Farm by George Orwell is an animated book that explains clearly how Socialism/progressive/communist ideas turn bad eventually. It's free in audiobook format on youtube.
I read it in high school in the 90's.
Something tells me it's no longer required reading. Don't want our future knowing too much truth...
Got to dumb them down with Cardi B and all that other drivel....
I'm going to make my daughter's read it regardless. That and "1984"
Read also: The Law by Frédéric Bastiat. Available for free on the interwebs and maybe an hour's read tops.
@@whoathatsanicememe3093 it is not. I desperately tried to make my daughter read it when I realized the school wouldn't. By then it was too late. She was already sucked in by the DEI cult.
Also 1984 by Orwell and A Brave New World by Huxley. There's many others of course, about dystopias that are documentaries nowadays but those are 2 of the most important ones along with Animal Farm 👌🏻
I would also say "1984" is a must read.
Wow it’s almost like they completely turned the corner and really wanted to fix themselves. Props to them for being willing to do it.
we have to get rid of most American politicians and laws
Was literally thinking about it today "I wish I could talk to Mr Stossel regarding Georgias recent changes and how relevant it is for America today", I'm an American who migrated from Georgia in 2003 and very happy that you did this report, thank you!
Georgia is awesome! I had the privilege and pleasure of visiting Georgia many times on business trips from 2016-2020. Its people are friendly, well-educated and passionate patriots. I hope to return as a tourist next year - forget about the usual European destinations and be sure to include Georgia. One week there will be enough to make you fall in love with Georgia!
I spent much time in Georgia..the people are amazing and complete strangers welcomed me into their homes. One a professor and engeener duing the Soviet days explained that you couldnt depend on your govt check..sometimes months would go by and no money, so everyone has a side job. All ground floor apts sold goods out a window, he tutored students and worked on other projects...when the Soviets collapsed, everyone survived till things sorted out because of this. Beautiful country, great people..I highly recommend it.
if a US politician heard that , his head would exploded into little pieces .
*I love how Asly had to struggle to keep a straight face when he talked about his friend's anti-corruption guy needing money for the position.* 😂
“That wasn’t real communism.”
here before some idiot says "WeLL commUniSm nO mOneY No stAte!+
@@arv7539 Why is someone an idiot for saying that? There's a difference between communism and socialism. Communism is impossible and socialism is silliness.
@@tylerwhaley4872 and what they are trying to do here now is fascist.
@Führer Joe ok
@@arv7539 I mean, they would be right in this case, but “no state powers” would be very difficult to achieve (since you’d basically be trying to get the government to remove its power), and then without any state powers, it might be quite similar to anarchy.
"Government should regulate the minimum" that's the way it was drawn up by the founders. Unfortunately, the fed has grown and grown, now we're so bloated we can't even function.
Minimum gov is like minimum cancer it is just its nature to grow.
@@Barskor1 It's hard to say that you need no government at all though. how do you enforce agreements between individuals or corporations? Should each corporation have its own army to attack it's rivals? Who prevents the person with the most guns from just taking everything from their neighbours? A feudal system isn't better either. I think I'd rather have some form of government for that sort of thing.
A government I think is essential, it's the scope that's the issue. And yes, it requires constant vigilance to keep in in check, but that's the price for a civilized society. There is a difference between libertarianism and anarchism, and the left loves to pretend there isn't to scare people, our own side needs to avoid making the same mistake.
@@Green__one How do you enforce agreements and contracts? If you knew the person who wanted a contract with you had broken one or more contracts in the past and the details of those circumstances you could make an informed decision and likely not make a contract with them aka bad actors would get driven out of business with no violence needed, so to do that a blockchain distributed network database can be made.
Armies are extremely expensive any company maintaining one would have to charge far more for products and services than those that did not.
Next, the collateral damage from such corporate wars would be an insane PR nightmare if you think spilling some oil is bad try blowing up a few city blocks or running gun battles.
Why would you buy from such companies?
"Who prevents the person with the most guns from just taking everything from their neighbors?"
All it takes is one would-be victim to shoot them and the problem ends such violent people are only 5% of any given population.
After natural disasters, you can see this in action in the US as signs saying looters will be shot and unsurprisingly looters stay away.
So your minimum government requires constant vigilance and has that worked? No people are busy living their lives and the incentives to vote for a living driving politician to buy their votes always wins out over your frugal limited government concept.
How is a society that holds others hostage, steals from them under threat of violence because the majority of you thinks it is just how it is as long as it benefits them civilized?
@@Barskor1 so you are not at all libertarian, you are in fact an anarchist. Libertarianism has been shown to work in many places. Anarchy has never been shown to work, take a look at most of the continent of Africa for prime examples. Those are very much examples of anarchy, when there is no government at all, whoever has the most might wins, we see it all the time, it's never worked. Government is a necessary evil, evil yes, but necessary.
@@Green__one Ireland for thousands of years was anarchy aka to be without rulers and they had Brehon law which is the basis for common law we use today.
Africa has many issues low average IQ religious struggles native religions Islam and Christianity tribal conflicts colonialism along with socialism and high regulations on everything and that is not counting the outside influences of other governments go read Smedly Butler's book War is a Racket and John Perkins book Confessions of an Economic
Hitman.
The next point "whoever has the most might wins, we see it all the time,"
So why didn't the USA win Afghanistan?
If the general population of Afghanistan fought the Taliban the Taliban would be gone in under a month.
I work for local government. We have 1 supervisor for every 4 employees in our little group. The citizens are actually paying $220k in wages for 3 supervisors to manage 13 people. Now imagine what it's like on a federal level. I wouldn't put these people in change of tying shoes, let alone running important stuff like the economy.
damn, never thought John would cover this gem of a country, much love.
"YEARS of Soviet propaganda kept people from learning about free markets."
Sound familiar, America?
I pray for Georgia. The weakening of the US is going to embolden Russia to try and take back Georgia.
They should arm all of their citizens, an armed society is harder to conquer
Yeah. Being American kinda sucks right now.
Thanks Joe.
Well Russia 🇷🇺 has already conquered Abkhazia at least Economically so it wouldn’t be too hard for Russia 🇷🇺 to take back 100% of Georgia 🇬🇪 like what Alexandyr Lukashenko wants to do with Belarus 🇧🇾 and what they have effectively already done in Transistria which is meant to be a part of Moldova 🇲🇩 but split during a bloody civil war in the 1990s
I think we should be more worried for the us state of Georgia
I don’t think America has many allies in this region… I dont mean in a Saudi Arabia type of ally, but an ally who’s people actually love America and its culture.
The weakening positions of the US has certainly been worrisome, especially after the latest Nagorni-Karabakh war, after which Russia opened yet another military base in the Caucasus region..
We certainly have a long way ahead of us in building reliable institutions, but we do need support from our allies to keep Russia out.
They talked in this video how Georgia had a 12% GDP growth in 2007, what they didn’t say was that it came after a 2006 embargo imposed by Russia (our largest trade partner at the time) and that it was followed by Russian invasion in 2008… Though the invasion did have other Geopolitical reasons as well…
Sakartvelo has always been a country of incredible tenacity in the face of great powers. They had to fight the Mongols, they had to fight Tamerlane, they had to fight the Ottomans and Safavids, and that's not even to mention constantly being split in half both internally and externally. The Soviet empire was (hopefully) the last in a long line of Imperial boots, but the people of Sakartvelo have always been able to reform and rebuild. They always know what they have to do, and always have the will to do it. I just hope that the Russians and their latent ideas can be fought off.
Larry Elder for California Governor! Spread the word everywhere, especially cali residents!
Be an advocate, get the word out! We're down to the wire... the election is in less than a month, sept 14th! (Ballots available now)
This election is all about *turnout* and a victory could be the falling of small stones that starts an avalanche!
For freedom.
Lets gooo!!!!
"You can lose a fight, but you can't win a surrender." - Andrew Klavan
Also spread the word about the compromised mail in ballots!! Turn the ballot when you put it in envelope so your choice on the recall question doesn't line up with the holes they purposely put on the envelope! The holes let them see those that voted "yes" to recall without opening it, and we all know what they'll do with those!!!
@@beatrixkiddo3867 I loved the excuse they gave for that btw.
@@icestationzebraassociates2460 link to the excuse? Lol
Commiefornia has a leftists super majority in the legislature. They can just override a veto.. Commiefornia CAN NOT be fixed!
Yes! I personally can't wait for him to become the governor of California.
Finally! Somebody who can fix the worst state ever! We've been waiting for this moment to happen for so long!
Thank you so much for your videos!
Thanks for covering Georgia, many americans I’ve talked to think there is only a state named like this.
Libertarians in Russia like me look at Georgia as an example of post-soviet country that tried something close to minimal government. Wish them all the luck!
Hey, we wish you luck too. I'm glad to see that Libertarianism is gaining momentum in Russia culturally (politics will eventually follow).
We saw how libertarian was Georgia back in 2006 when they directly tried to join a offensive alliance
Full support to all Georgia 🇬🇪 from Poland 🇵🇱 ✌️✌️👍
Great video! I think the other way we should teach absent minded Americans what this country needs to aim for is to have a month long camp for adults to work in China. The youth that want socialism have NO IDEA.
And China is a perfect example of how corporations and unregulated business lead to poor working conditions.
@@bluehotdog2610 HAHA, China doesnt care about human rights, they dont have capitalism
@@gregoryeverson741 Unrestricted capitalism doesn't care about human rights.
@@bluehotdog2610 China has all the laws and regulations to control the alleged capitalists but as they are the CCP membership guess how much they actually bother to enforce on themselves?
Skandinavien Countries are much more succesfull with there social capitalism then the us is with his free market
"... and every interaction with an official can be an open door for a corrupt request..." sounds about right with them good ol' folks in DC.
I honestly think this was the best statement in the video. I was going to point it out if someone else didn't yet.
John is our generation’s Freedman.
I wish my country had a Libertarian party
Can you start one?
If you're talking about the United States, we have one that's been around for many years. They've just never been able to get much traction. Too bad.
We have two. Dude you see in the video (Zurab Japaridze), created Girchi, which then splot up after elections. No one really knows why. Well, suspicion is that Zurab tried to push against blatant election fraud, and his colleagues wanted to use their newly acquired platform to solve current problems, both have great points, but i personally agree with Zurab more. He's more like Dave Smith in LP and their stories of conflict with "etablishment" part of their parties is comparable. It's old "values over effectiveness", in which i always side with values, even if i end up on a losing team.
But in the end both parties are still Libertarian and both have seats in Parliament. Not that it matters much for now, but they have platform to convert more people.
@@jbj27406 The less traction they get the better. In elections the Libertarians only siphon votes away from republicans allowing radical democrats to get elected. Examples, Ossoff in GA (USA), Tester of MT, and Manchin in WV. The Libertarian party in the US should rename itself the Libertine party because they really stand for nothing.
Tbh Nationalism is best Liberalism or libertarians are not that cool
I feel Bulgaria may be in a similar boat soon. We'll see how it goes. People don't value freedom and free markets enough in many areas there.
Do you mean Bulgaria may become socialistic or gain more economic growth and freedom?
@@superdingo9741 They had a short period of deregulation and economic freedom (they're somewhat still in it, it doesn't go away overnight) but recently they have been supporting socialist leaders and policies again unfortunately. Hopefully none of it comes to fruition.
@@superdingo9741 I`m Bulgarian and honestly we are somewhere between socialism/capitalism. The country in terms of economic policies has been slowly edging to the right overall. We had a massive privatization in the 90s. Whatever wasn`t privatized is slowly dying out as well.
We introduced a flat tax. We introduced a currency board to manage inflation. There is large support for tax cutts and a judiciary reform. What worries me more is the slow emergence woke wester decease here as well.
Neither the Stossel`s nor the woke are typical Bulgarian thought though. We`ve always seen ourselves as individuals but also as part of the larger community/group. A healthy balance between the two must exist. Stossel is also a bit of a radical individualist in that regard.
as a greek i really look up to the bulgarian economy. good thing is bulgaria is turning more and more to the free markets. bad thing is that corruption is stopping it.
There's supposed to be a lot of corruption in Bulgaria!
Fun fact: Joseph Stalin was born in Georgia before the rise of the Soviet Union and later became its brutal dictator.
Property taxes should be illegal!
-Daily reminder
Extortion should be illegal no exceptions.
I think there should just be one tax that's at like say 5-10%ish
Like say we remove all other taxes besides the sales tax and then when that is finished we raise the sales tax to 5%.
So remove bascily all taxes(besides physical things like stamps, toll booths, library book late fees etc. etc.)
Then raise the sales tax to 5%.
Probably the meanest tax there is. Imagine after working a lifetime and retiring into old age getting priced out of your house.
@@jackalenterprisesofohio I think that's what the UAE did
I could support a LVT with exemptions for retirement people on 1 property.
Stalin's homeland is now a free market nation! How great!
That’s good
We also were a country with free, basically anarchic tribes in mountains and strongly conservative Christian kingdoms in valleys fighting against opressive empires long before Stalin. So ideas of freedom is nothing new for us. Some of us just forgot and need to be reminded of our great history.
@@kakhakheviashvili6365 I did not know that about Georgia. That is really cool! Thank you for sharing. I would love to visit Georgia.
It is as as the phase goes, "no one will learn from somebody else's experience" all these countries suffered from communism and that is why they don't wanna go back to that; Hungary and Poland are other examples we should learn from. A cohesive society is a prosperous one and the smaller the government, the richer the society is!
Are you crazy... Both Poland and Hungary have left free market principles allready. In Poland 70% of employment is now state-owned. 92% of fuel market is in hands of one state company. State administration and birocracy have increased by one third since 2015. It is national-socialism at it's best.
Self-government is the smallest it can be for the richest society.
Agramer Old Octane I can confirm in the case of Poland, I lived there for more than 5 years. Poland is a third world country with third world people and mentality, nothing but frustrated, self-hateful losers and wannabes with an inferiority complex, and I know cause I'm from the third world myself. As a Dutch acquaintance simply and elegantly put it: Poland is a dump! The largest companies in Poland are foreign, like Jeronimo Martins' Biedronka and Bank Millennium, both Portuguese. They're nothing but jingoist third world people, it's more the noise they make with their pseudo-patriotism, there's a reason they left, leave and will continue to leave in droves more so than any other group in all of Europe, except maybe for Ukraine and Belarus.
I wasted my time, life and money there, and I regret every second of it. A complete dump! Spend your time and investments elsewhere, go for the best, don't wander off and go on silly, good for nothing adventures.
@@V0YAG3R I am closing my investments and leaving next year, as did two other foreigners in my area.
I love how you're bringing attention to free market success of a former communist country. I also hate the fact you're bringing attention to the success of Georgia because people and companies from the US will start flocking there ready to corrupt them.
Its already filled with us people and companies
Asking thieves to steal the minimum is impossible.
I had the pleasure of going to Georgia in 2011 and discovered many of these sentiments while there. Great video.
This video should be played in every college classroom in America!!
In our defense, they're still somewhat poor but the progress is still pretty fast
New Korea
@@justinnamuco9096 Bring American troops in Georgia too and We will become “The Caucasian Tiger 😂”
Good morning John
Thanks for continuing to produce informative, high-value content!
It should be required that high schools play John Stossel videos so the kids actually learn something
"Imagine how much better it would be if I was in charge." That's a dangerous statement.
Yeah but imagine.
A country wide telegraph system and a 5% sales tax and a whole fleet of Sea planes...and....and.......and.....
*_Georgia,_* like Etruria (Rasenna), may have had a *_matriarchal_* past. This also goes for the Basques, Sumerians, Dravidians and Mon-Khmer. What is intriguing about the Georgians and Etruscans is that their words for mother and father may have become gender swapped when they shifted from matriarchy to patriarchy. And I'm not talking about the Georgian golden age under Queen Tamar. I'm talking about the period before Jason and his Argonauts stole the Golden Fleece from the wary gaze of the Colchian dragon.
The Etruscan words for mother and father are "ati" and "apa" respectively. In Basque they are "ama" and "aita," respectively. Notice the similarity between Etruscan mother and Basque father -- "ati" and "aita;" and notice the similarity between Etruscan father and Basque mother -- "apa" and "ama" -- both labial consonants surrounded by "a." What makes this seemingly innocuous coincidence more intriguing are the names of two gods in the Etruscan pantheon -- the Etruscan counterparts to Roman Janus -- goddess of beginnings, "Ana," and god of endings, "Aita." In Etruscan prehistory, the names of these gods *_matched_* the Basque words for mother and father by gender -- "Ana" and "ama" with "Aita" and "aita."
*_Hypothesis:_* When the Etruscans decided to switch from matriarchy to patriarchy (if, indeed, they were matriarchal in the prehistoric past), the term for "mother" -- "ruler" -- stayed with the ruling function, rather than with the gender. So, men became the new "mothers."
A similar thing may have happened with the *_Georgians,_* for their word for "father" is "mama," and their word for "mother" is "deda."
Reference: *_Mission: Atlantis, Scientific evidence of Plato's lost island empire_* (780pp, paperback; also ebook)
Glad to see you covering these topics
Thank you, Stossel! You’ve given me an answer I’ve been searching for for almost a year! Thank you!
If you are looking at former USSR countries, try looking at the Baltic countries. Estonia's debt to GDP ratio is 8% (2019) and it's 7th in economic freedom...
Government just about ruins everything it gets involved in. Why people are blind to this when it is right in front of them is mind boggling.
There's administration and then there's government
@@Allangulon
Both. Even with a good administration they have enough bad people to still ruin it. Not to mention the opposing administration doing what they can to make the other look bad rather then making things better.
@@KevinMcMullen.
Yes, I hate smear campaigns, it's a technique employed by those with nothing upbuilding to say!
@@Allangulon
Yep.
Thanks for another interesting and informative video
Great reporting! These videos are helping me make sense of this crazy world.🙏
Georgia also has a great Sumo wrestler in Tochinoshin!
(That's his Japanese name. He's actually from Georgia.)
Georgia has a great weightlifter lasha talakhadze, a great arm-wrestler levan saginashvili and etc
Love you, John.
Thanks for the awesome video, John!
Great reporting, thank you
Hope my country does the same as Georgia, except the end part.
And without Ayn Rand, everything in Georgia will be lost.
She provides the moral defense as to WHY the individual matters in politics.
There were heroes who wrote important works before her. Check out Frederic Bastiat. Specifically "The Law" and "Petition of the Candlemakers".
@@MrVvulf absolutely. If it wasn't for the intellectual Giants before her time, it would have been harder for her to have induced her defense for the individual on a moral level. She literally needed history of men who had mostly wrong ideas, so she could pluck out the good ideas, induce her own conclusions from those good ideas and create a fully integrated philosophy, the first-of-its-kind in human history.
Kakha Bendukidze, the minister of economy who is responsible for the reforms, is more of a hayekian in theoretical questions (he was a biologist), but his policy prescriptions were very much for an ultra-minimal government like Rand's. His motto was "We must sell everything except our honor"
Isn't she an atheist? How can there be morality without a creator? What is "wrong" with anything if it is no different from the "right?"
@@forgottenrights351 You asked an extremely deep question.
If you want me to answer you honestly, you can hit me up on my stream, either on twitch or youtube.
I'll be glad to answer your question fully there!
You have out done yourself on this one Mr Stossel. Thank you!
What a fantastic example! Thanks; I never knew, nor would I have leaned without you.
I really thought this country was already annexed by Russia. I'm glad Georgia still exist, It's on my bucket list.
😐
It's interesting to see what happened in Georgia as a small scall, short term prepresentaiton of the arc happening in America. The world is repleat with examples of how not to thrive and yet so many are drawn to those same failed examples.
they just want power/control
Voting for a living is easier than working for one it is simple survival calorie management from the days of the ameba.
@@Barskor1 Thats a bit of an oversimplification. I tend to think people fail to grasp these concepts because freedom is more abstract than a government check.
@@gregoryeverson741 Some do, some people just want to let someone else deal with the hard stuff so they give up ower to the types that want it.
You can vote yourself into socialism but you'll have to shoot your way out
Stossel is a LEGEND. A National Treasure. He is sincere, intellectually honest, and ethically trustworthy. A true maverick and giant among the journalist cockroaches.
Thank you John Stossel.
I lived in George for 4 years - this is accurate :)
Stossel should do a video about Switzerland as well, the way it's direct democracy is made should be an example for the USA for how to be truly a free country as it was supposed to be when it was founded.
Excellent report.
THANK YOU for this. I was worried when I started watching this video that you would only talk about how Georgia has thrived and is on the right course, which is NOT the case.
We WERE on the right course economic wise, but now I feel we are getting poorer and more oppressed than ever.
Make a video about how Estonia digitlazes it's bureaucracy, making it one of the most (if not the most) bureaucracy in the world.
IRC Stossel did that a few years ago.
@@Barskor1 Please link it.
Neat program. I've always thought America should study all of Russian History and Current Events, even the Language, in High School. They seem badly misrepresented in American TV.
I feel all enemy's of the US are misrepresented, the media here brainwashes people into hating those nations too, where I see democrats and Republicans alike say shit like, "fuck that country they should just bomb them all" as if all the people in those country's represent the ideology of there government.
@Uncle Step-dad Far, far, far from alone.
Zero confidence, here.
@@dylanbasstica8316 yea and those countries are better friends than enemies sometimes
@Uncle Step-dad hope, most Americans still remember how to read text, that requires more attention span than average Bloomberg article, blaming whites for everything in the history.
Jokes aside, in Russia we used to have this book in 10th grade as a part of literature course. The most depressing and sickening thing I've ever read. Sadly, we still have people, who think that Mr.Solzhenitsyn was paid to write this and made the whole story up. Awful...
@@dylanbasstica8316 Oh, really? You've heard Dems and Republicans say,
"f....that country they should just bomb them all." Hopefully, you don't tally c19 cases.
Fantastic video!
Thank you, I enjoyed this.
We could also take some weight lifting lessons from Lasha, who dominated at the Olympics.
While you are doing that, also take corruption lessons from him. He's a pro at that too ^_^
@@vakhtangnodadze4947 შენგან კიდე სოიოს დალევას ისწავლის და ტესტასტერონი დაუვარდება
@@vakhtangnodadze4947 I guess I'm unaware on that front. Care to elaborate?
@@ExPwner @@ExPwner 2 years ago some police arrested and beat up Lasha Beqauri. They knew who he was, (back than he was Europe Champion) but they still did it because we have fucked up oppressive police. Imagine what they do an ordinary guy. Than Lasha came out and swore he would not leave anything like that and bla bla bla, but next day he deleted his post and when asked, said nothing happened. I assumed he just got scared but after that we see him in close contact with the government.
After he won Olympia championship he threw a feast for 100+ people where even the Prime Minister was there. Even though the previous days the Prime Minister himself was saying that birthdays and people gatherings was banned, because Georgia has some of the highest deaths in the world.(We are #4 in the world for people deaths by corona per 1 milion in the last 7 days).
After that Lasha's friend beat up some police and was arrested but Lasha asked Prime Minister for his release.
We have seen this already when world champions become parlamenters and Mayors, because people love them for the sake of fame.
That is what Lasha is becomming and he has absolutely no shame getting privilages from the oppressive government, who has been grinding, looting and killing people for the past 9 years.
So.. yea.
I value humanity over championship ANY day.
@@vakhtangnodadze4947 yikes. That sounds awful. Sorry to hear that.
However, I was referring to a different Lasha here. I meant Lasha Talakhadze who competed in Olympic weightlifting.
"I blame Biden!"
"I blame Trump!"
"I blame you!"
Stop blaming others and start thinking.
Same for Afghanistan, don’t blame someone else
Thanks for this
Great piece, John.
Hi John please do a video about the Afghanistan conflict!
The "lessons" I got from this video IS Georgia's success wouldn't have been possible if not for the collapse of the USSR and I believe the USA is heading in the same direction. I live in the state of Georgia and I hope my Georgia has the same good fortune after USA collapses.
The US fiat currency supply is going exponential 40% of total historic supply was made in 2020 2021 is going to beat that 2022 is going to be utterly insane.
This is what so many people forget. We cannot truly change the federal government without first changing our local and state governments.
In reality Georgia (former Soviet republic) is in a terrible economic shape.
Georgia could have been 100x richer if they DIDNT INVADE IN THE FIRST PLACE
Stossel, you are awesome! Great report!
Great info!
Weird video, that does not talk about Stalin (the Georgian) who ruled over teh USSR for decades. Does not talk about the illegal wars in South Ossetia (backed by the US) and in Abkhazia killing civilians in Tsikhinvali. Does not talk about how the US backed President (who is shown in glowing light) was not only ousted but stripped of his Georgian citizenship.
Ole Stalin would turn in his grave lol
Good. Screw that guy.
The man is spinning so fast, he could probably provide electricity for all of Russia.
I love watching you! You’ve always been one of my favorites 💜
Love the videos!!
Every socialist teen should see this documentary!
Every socialist teen needs a one way ticket to Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, North Korea.
@@stoundingresults
I don't blame a person for being lied to, but I do blame them for believing the lie!
ჯაფარ ჩაიjvi 💖
Watched John since I can remember back in the day on antenna 📺
The best youtube channel.. always providing us with the best assessments.