pull down to refresh
It's overall quite libertarian.
oh man, I wanna hear more about that. Alarm bells go off on that.
Generally speaking the ethos in Ukrainian society is that if you aren't hurting someone else, you can do as you please. Notably, that means laws just aren't enforced that rigorously, and the laws themselves aren't that onerous.
For example you can still buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for cash in pretty much whatever quantities you want without AML/KYC all over the country in Bitcoin exchange shops. I personally have sold $7000 USD worth in one go: I was converging Bitcoin donations to cash, to buy Flash Battalion a vehicle.
You can also still buy SIM cards without AML/KYC. And government officials talking about the pressure they're under to eliminate that openly say that privacy is important.
Ukraine is by no means a perfect libertarian paradise. But compared to the rest of Europe it's really good; even compared to the US in many respects it's quite good.
If anything the US right is being extremely stupid for not supporting Ukraine. They have an amazing opportunity to get another libertarian European country. We could have a Ukrainian 1st amendment and 2nd amendment – a first in Europe. Instead they're squandering the opportunity.
Ukraine is by no means a perfect libertarian paradise. But compared to the rest of Europe it's really good; even compared to the US in many respects it's quite good.
waaaay too low a bar, but I take your point.
Also, how do you reckon that's different from the avg German or Swiss or Hungarian? Reality is libertarian-biased in that way (=we all live like it), but still we end up with oversized states, 45% taxes, inflation and surveillance/ID everywhere
Academics would say things like low state capacity, right?
Germany, Switzerland, and Hungary all have governments that aren't particularly libertarian. Especially Germany and Hungary. Right now Ukraine is relatively libertarian compared to them.
Re: low state capacity, Ukraine is a great example of how you need a certain amount of state capacity or your high state capacity neighbors will invade and take your stuff.
Ok, reasonable... but I meant in terms of upholding (immoral/stupid) rules. As in: take away the war, do bureaucrats or law enforcement stay relatively uninterested in complying and enforcing the laws?
Cops certainly are interested in enforcing laws that are important. But they don't go out of their way to harass people, and almost all cops are chill.
For example, in Kyiv, I once blew through a red light in a dangerous way right in front of a police officer while on one of those rental electric scooters. The cop lite up his lights, and pulled over in front of me. I just apologized and said that was dumb of me and I shouldn't have done that. And that was that. No ticket.
Equally, I've gone through a lot of military checkpoints going to and from areas close to the front line. They rarely actually ask what I'm doing, and only occasionally check my documents; I've never actually had my stuff searched. They certainly could do that and there's good reasons for those checkpoints. But they don't go out of their way to harass people who are clearly there for good reasons.
...and? Ukraine isn't a backwater. It's a modern capitalist democracy. Pre-war they had a decent amount of rich people, and those people didn't magically become poor just because Russia invaded.
Indeed, a major part of how Ukraine continues to function during a war is capitalism. Soldiers get combat pay, which they spend on stuff they need, creating incentives for businesses to provide those things. For instance, in Kramatorsk, ~20km from the front line, you can buy SMD soldering gear from former cellphone shops they are now selling drone repair tools. You can also buy silencers, anto-drone ammo, body armor, etc. etc. etc. Shipping companies still function too. I can and have used the privately owned Nova Poshta shipping company to ship donated supplies directly to front line units. The farthest east Nova Poshta delivery locations are places under threat of FPV drones where you really should be wearing body armor to visit.
Similarly, this winter when Russia was trying to destroy the power grid, Ukraine continued to function because businesses and individuals replaced grid power with private solutions. Practically every business in the country had generators, and cafes were doing great business serving people working on laptops who wanted heat and power. Including myself.
Ukraine is winning in large part because it continues to be a nice place to live. I personally know quite a few people who have moved there for tax reasons: taxes in Ukraine are relatively low, even with the wartime add-on taxes, and government doesn't spend much money on bullshit. It's overall quite libertarian.