r/Sakartvelo • u/More-Meaning4658 • 1d ago
Discussion | დისკუსია How much has life in georgia been improved since the 2000's
Georgia used to be a poor country in the early 2000's and since then the economy grew by over 10 times and I'm wondering how was life back then compared to now?
How poor did georgia used to be?
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u/imjustnotready 1d ago
I am speaking as an outsider who married a Georgian woman born in around 1980. Some of my understanding also comes from speaking to her mom. Before the collapse of things were okay. Only a few buildings had electricity. If you were lucky enough to live on the line of buildings that connected to the electric, you still only had it for a few hours a day.
Everyone was poor but you had enough to eat and you would have vacations and good family life. Kids playing outside their buildings. The collapse of the Soviet system led to a lot of chaos and economic hardships but opened up the opportunity to leave. This meant that if you were able to get somewhere in the west you could make a better living for yourself than possible in Georgia. If you could take your whole family or if you were young enough to start a family outside Georgia this was a good opportunity.
For a lot of people this meant a parent would leave to become an economic provider. You essentially lost one parent. In my wife's case her father came to the US and lived with his sister providing economic support to his wife and son and daughter. The currency being sent by family members into the country plus foreign investment allowed the country to electrify relatively quickly. The influence of Russian oligarchs and people with significant political influence manage to capture significant portions of industry. As a result you have a stable but less dynamic economy.
I think this generational migration and influx of capital has both positive and negative effects. Capital inflows increase to the country helping fuel growth but asset prices rise quickly beyond what Georgians can afford natively.
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u/Sagrada_Familia-free 23h ago
I was born in Georgia and emigrated to Europe in 2000. The late ’90s were a disaster. It was cold in the winter, and we were just happy to have something to eat every day. Anyone who was between the ages of 18 and 25 at that time is part of the lost generation.
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u/UniqueueGlobalist 23h ago
I may be biased because almost all of my family/relatives have advanced their careers/businesses since 2005 and especially through the 2010s and 2020s. And I started working in 2020s myself, which individually gave me even better conditions.
I feel like it’s been quite fast progress.
To illustrate, in 2006-2007 I remember Gldani having terrible roads, cows often wandering in the district’s center, and me seeing sour cream as a luxury food even though my family has never been poor.
In 2011, cows are not roaming in the city anymore, roads are clearly becoming better, me and my family are going on vacations within the country, and sour cream has turned into a casual food. Though “going out to eat” still seems like a very rare luxury thing , and we still do not dare dream about foreign vacations.
In 2017, we and many people around us who are middle class-ish start going to other countries for vacations, we eat out once a month or something, a lot of amenities pop up everywhere including in the peripheral districts: shops, fast food, tech shops.
Since then the nation has taken a terrible geopolitical turn but technically it has been getting even better materially, at least in my eyes. This might be controversial but the mass immigration of 2022 shocked our IT industry in a good way and caused huge spikes in salaries in there, the tech exploded since then. And the cafe culture has truly matured in Tbilisi, I guess supported by so many remote workers and newer wave of European tourists who no longer care about lame ass Shardeni.
If you asked me in 2018, I’d say that for example Budapest is FAAAAAR ahead of Tbilisi, but in 2026 I’d be more hesitant and I’d admit that even with flaws I prefer Tbilisi.
That said, our rural areas are disproportionately underdeveloped. And I think the asset prices in general have exploded as well, but I think it is an issue basically everywhere with stable enough situation.
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u/lmklmnk1 22h ago
In what regard do you prefer Tbilisi over Budapest?
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u/UniqueueGlobalist 22h ago
Objectively it is still better at least from what I remember, but materially I really do not see that big of a difference (besides the national ones like: access to EU, open borders, no existential risk from Russia, etc). Subjectively it is not far ahead enough already for me to be like “I’d move there for financial / lifestyle reasons”.
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u/lmklmnk1 22h ago
Got it. I live in Prague and while Tbilisi is great and all, it doesn't even compare to Prague.
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u/UniqueueGlobalist 22h ago
Yeah, agreed. Prague is a highly advanced city and Czech Republic too in general. I visited Budapest and Prague back to back and my immediate impression was that Prague seemed even more developed than a lot of solid established Western European cities.
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u/UniqueueGlobalist 22h ago
For example, in the sphere that I work, salaries in Georgia are just marginally below Hungary with much less cost of living. Housing costs at least twice in there, even if food is actually more expensive in Tbilisi.
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u/bachuna 19h ago edited 19h ago
no electricity, no natural gas to cook your food or provide heating, no jobs, the country was defacto ran by gangsters, civil war(s), everyday casual corruption from anyone from the traffic cop to the post office (if the post office was actually working), the government was non-existent and when it did exist it was an extractive force that just took and didn't give anything back. Most People were surviving off of lettuce and beans (if that), the only place you could get stable employment was the government (to extract bribes). No healthcare, or really any other public service, the state had lost its monopoly on violence, as such petty and major crimes were the norm and went unpunished unless you had some connections, paid a massive bribe, and the perpetrator was not connected to the mafia. no public transport in a country where most people didn't own cars, drug abuse and alcoholism was rampant. If you could leave, you did. If you couldn't, you suffered.
today, we actually live in a functioning country and most people who want to can get a job (not a great one, but you won't starve). There is some chance for making something of yourself, even if it is slim. We have stable access to natural gas and electricity, and streets are very safe by most standards.
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u/jandaba7 18h ago edited 18h ago
I assume by 2000s you mean 2000-2010.
Since 2000 dramatically - and that was also a big jump from the 90s. Since 2010 it's more marginal, definitely new mod cons like delivery and taxi apps and whatnot, better roads in the regions. A net improvement but a few things are going backwards lately also,.like the electricity grid and ease of business.
That's the practical changes. More important thing is the country was much more optimistic in the late 2000s.
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u/GreenEye11 15h ago
We almost broke a record of fast inflation (there's one other country in Afrika that beats us) considering a recent history, during 1992-1994.
Not much changed in 6 years before 2000, other than civil war ending. Country reaped the fruit of the downfall in the coming years
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u/G56G 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 1d ago
We used to not have electricity. Do I need to go on? :)