12:08
''The post-Soviet countries had fuck all worth of industrial base to begin with, and what was there was already dismantled back in the 90s. They've had no know-how, no technology, and for all purposes were already fucked beyond repair by 1990, the moment they agreed to Wall Street dictated "transformation to capitalism" programs that opened up their markets for penetration by foreign capital. Local manufacturers had no time to adapt, as people wanted western products, wrapped in pretty colorful packaging, designed to look nice on the shelf, not crude devices based on Soviet tech that was 30 years behind. It was a long con, executed perfectly by the French and ze Germans, and by mid 2000s joining EU was inevitable outcome. The new EU members never stood a chance.Yup. People didn't even have an idea how run a mall. The shelves were dirty, the cashiers were rude, and the products were disorganized. I mean, that's the most basic enterprise you can set up, running a shop, and this was our level of sophistication at the time. Heavy industry was running a loss, clothing industry had no modern fabrics and designs, food processing had no modern chems, nobody knew a fucking thing about marketing, packaging or advertising. Industrial design was about making things work, not making things sell, so even if they've made some decent devices, they all looked like spawn of Cthulu.
Then the Wall goes down, and the local industry is suddenly expected to compete with foreign companies who have all that, and many decades of experience on an open market. So of course the industrial base crumbled within couple of years, shocking all the politicians, who apparently expected that Crown Jewel of Polish Automotive Industry will conquer the world as soon as the borders open.''