TownHall: John Stossel
Georgia (the ex-Soviet Republic, not the U.S. state) is now a remarkable success story.
Its economy is growing at 5% per year, and the country ranks ahead of the United States in economic freedom.
Yet, 20 years ago, Georgia was even more miserably poor than the rest of the former Soviet Union.
So, what can America and the rest of the world learn from Georgia’s progress?
A lot, says my executive producer Maxim Lott. He’s spent the past several months in Georgia and made a StosselTV video about it.
All former Soviet states are poor because the communists had grabbed everyone’s private property and put it under government control.
They thought they were smart enough to run the economy. They did things like order Georgians to produce tea. Soon, 95% of tea in the Soviet Union came from Georgia.
But Georgia is not the best place to grow tea.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, “People started to taste Indian tea and realized that tea is actually better,” says Georgian politician Zurab Japaridze. “Nobody wanted Georgian tea.”
That industry, and most others, vanished when Soviet support ended. “Three-fourths of the Georgian economy disappeared,” he says.
Central planners are never smart enough to run something as complex as an economy. more
“Central planners are never smart enough to run something as complex as an economy.”
And purposely undereducated citizens are never smart enough to see through the “free stuff” that grifter politicians promise them for their votes.
It is beautiful and the people are great! I highly recommend a visit. They give you a bottle of wine at passport control. Really. Ok it’s 500 ml but still.
Georgians are some of the baddest asses on the planet. Per capita, they grab the most Olympic medals on the planet in strength sports and in all the grappling sports (Greco Roman and Freestyle Wrestling, Judo). And they have their own martial art form called Sambo
Believe it or not, this tiny country is also one of the top five nations in the Japanese sport of Judo
I’ve been to Eastern Europe four times and saw changes in many countries as they transformed to free market economics, none more than Hungary. Travel to Georgia, along with Armenia, has been on my bucket list for some time but now with all the covid restrictions on travel it doesn’t look like it will possible.
Met with the President of Georgia (in late 90s) in DC at the Embassy. It was something beyond and nothing to do with sex, or anything like that.
I must have looked like a dumb shit to him and he moved on, Don’t know why our meeting was arranged. He took very great interest, throughout.