“Ukraine needs to implement a number of reforms” is a popular statement being made by foreigners and locals. Proposed changes are expected to improve public finances, deregulate business and update the social security system. But time goes by and the progress in reforms remains very moderate. Why?
I believe the key reason is that Ukrainians do not think about the future.
It is a mental issue. During the early Soviet years in 1920-1950ss, millions of people were arrested and put into labor camps. Living conditions were awful there, and the only goal of people was to survive the current day which was very often inconsistent with ethics, honesty, integrity as well as other virtues… (The life in a Soviet labor camp is described well in a novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Nobel prize winner in literature in 1970). As a result, labor camps directly affected the mentality (and mental health) of many people. Then, the new “culture” was spread over the country as prisoners were released or relocated to build new cities and factories.
Although decades have passed, the mental models of survival-the-only-day still dominate. Some people became rich, but they still think the more they have today the better. Reputation has little value because its short-run benefits are low. Telling lies is justified because it at least pospones dealing with reality.
Reforms are about the future, but few Ukrainians are accustomed to think that far.
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