I live in a traditionally poor country. Or so, at least, is it perceived. It used to be that Romanians would leave the country and marvel at how expensive everything was out there, then come back and sort of be happy at having returned to their much more affordable home. That still is the consensus, and it may well be accurate, but it doesn't seem so to me.
Typically, the price of things like real estate, groceries, utilities etc should be matched to the general base salary in the country. Romania having a fairly low average salary, it ought to be a cheaper living than, say, Italy or Spain.
Right now, as of July 2024, the minimum wage in Romania has gone up to roughly 474 Euro. A month. Now obviously a lot of people in the country make more than that. People in IT make 3,000 - 6,000 (even more often) Euros a month which is an extremely impressive salary in our country. Others, however do not.
I have a friend who minds kids at a kindergarten who earns slightly above the minimum wage, though not by a lot more. I have a friend who just started work as a doctor who makes around seven or eight hundred. Not a lot of money at all.
And yet, if you were to browse real estate or go into a store, you'd be forgiven for thinking you're in the West. Prices are the same.
A two- or three- bedroom apartment in a new development will easily cost 160.000 Eur (sometimes even 200.000). I keep saying (baffled) that you can find apartments in Barcelona or various places in Italy for that. Obviously, you can always find way more expensive ones as well. But just the fact that you could feasibly live in a nice enough apartment in a good area of Barcelona for the same price you'd pay to live in a so-and-so area of Bucharest is mind-boggling to me. And to any Romanian person that I know.
Street view in Barcelona. Probably would cost more than 160K, but still.
As someone who has always had an eye on living abroad, I can tell you the reasoning used to be "sure, but it's way more affordable to live in Romania". Except it's not, anymore. I'm not sure what the situation is on rent, though I did recently browse seaside rentals in various parts of the Spanish coast for a family friend, and I found a host of 2- or 3-bedrooms priced anywhere between 500 and 800 a month. My current home could feasibly be rented out at 400 a month (2-bedroom), so it's not that big a difference. Downtown apartments easily go for more. And yet, the center of Bucharest is full of drug addicts and decrepit Commie buildings. It's not the Spanish coast.
I don't usually frequent department stores when abroad, but I have on occasion, and I've never walked out of a Mango or Zara of Decathlon shouting about the impossible prices. Pretty much the same as here.
Utilities, similarly. If not cheaper outside, depending on the area you live in. Groceries have reached astronomical highs. While living in Barcelona or before that in the south of Spain, my grocery bills were about the same as they are here now. Without sparing expenses or not buying the "luxury" treats I'm used to at home or anything like that. Not that I'm a caviar person or anything.
Takeout costs the same. Coffee at some fancy cafe costs the same, if not more here. I was traveling with my folks through the country over the weekend. A measly, simple coffee was 3-4 Euro. I used to pay less than 3 for a coffee and some pastry treat in fucking Barcelona. Again, a small Romanian city should not be able to charge higher prices than Barcelona.
A friend traveled recently in Romania for a wedding and paid more for two nights' accommodation than she did for three nights in Bari, a few days later.
It's interesting and worrying to me, because as I say, Romania's costs do not match its salary. I don't know if that's the case in the West as well, but it's concerning and invites reflection. Why live here when you could live somewhere much nicer for the same money (approx.)? That's on a personal level. But not everyone in my country has that luxury to just say fuck it, I'll pack up, sell the house and move someplace nicer. Most people here are forced to live on shit salaries in an economy that could easily be France. Which is terrifying.
What's even scarier is that most people I know here don't seem to be acknowledging that and persist instead in this "the way things have always been" delusion.
In traveling in-country because international travel is "expensive".
In setting up lives for themselves and their children here because making it out there "would be unfairly difficult".
I would like to know how you wake up.
