Comments by "" (@12q8) on "Gattsu" channel.

  1. For example, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Georgia’s economy shrank dramatically. By the mid-1990s, government spending on healthcare was extremely low, hovering around 2–3% of GDP compared to roughly 10% in many Western countries. During this period, reforms pushed by international lenders and the IMF forced Georgia to adopt austerity measures and take on external debt, which at one point grew to around 50–60% of GDP. With a large slice of government revenue dedicated to debt servicing, often around 15–20% of the budget, there was little left to invest in public services, including healthcare. This meant that even highly skilled professionals, such as doctors, were paid very low wages; reports from that era indicate that an average Georgian doctor might earn around $200–300 a month, a stark contrast to the multi-thousand-dollar salaries seen in the West. Meanwhile, the interest and principal repayments on these loans flowed to international creditors and financial institutions based largely in Western economies. These repayments, along with the profitable investments made possible by the lending, allowed Western economies to maintain higher spending on public services and provide their workers with much better compensation. Essentially, while Georgia was forced to allocate its limited funds to debt repayment and cutbacks in critical sectors, Western nations and their financial institutions were able to reinvest those funds at home, further deepening the economic divide between the two regions.
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