Hungary is currently one of the poorest and, possibly, the poorest in the European Union. Commercial output is declining year over year. The region’s production is close to the lowest level. The rate of unemployment is rising. The community is shrinking, claims Anne Applebaum in the March 31 issue of The Atlantic, despite the ruling group’s hushed discussion of traditional values.
This diatribe, which claims to identify in Hungary’s regional conservatism a severe outlook for Trump’s America, contains no one correct fact that is stated. Ms. Applebaum, who is mathematically challenged, may think about taking the third degree again and learning math.
Hungary can’t avoid the effects of Germany’s commercial decline, and the majority of Europe is in or close to crisis. Under the Fidesz Party, which took company in 2010, Hungary’s achievement has been at or close to the top of its competition.
The World Bank adjusts the raw data to represent what people really can purchase with their income in terms of GDP, which is measured in terms of purchasing power parity. In light of this, Hungary’s per person GDP is higher than that of Greece or Poland, but it still trails the Czech Republic and Slovenia in this regard.
Hungary’s efficiency is at the top of the list among its peers if we take into account the development of GDP in purchasing-power equality since 2010, when Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban took office.
Applebaum asserts that Hungary’s community is shrinking as a result of people’s departures:” Despite the ruling group’s hushed claims about traditional beliefs, the people is shrinking.”
Nearly every Western nation’s population is declining, but Viktor Orban’s Hungary has experienced the biggest treatment. It is one of only two Northern European nations with positive net movement, along with Czechia:
Hungary also excels in another crucial area, especially the proportion of its adult population that is financially inactive.
Simply Japan is among the European nations with the lowest inactivity rate, according to the OECD, making it the only one. For instance, in the UK, only 6 % of men between the ages of 25 and 54 are employed, compared to just 6 % in Hungary. This indicates that there are many careers available and that people want to do them.
Hungary’s total fertility rate has increased significantly since 2010, but it has fallen in every other European nation, despite Hungary’s fertility rate still being below alternative. Other European nations received a reproduction increase from a flood of refugees, which Hungary refused to accept, as I explained in a January 21 writing in Asia Times.
In the first generation, immigrants typically have higher fertility rates than citizens; however, as this trend faded, fertility rates dramatically decreased across most of Europe, while Hungary’s fertility rate remained steady.
Applebaum has been throwing a protracted public outburst since her father, Radek Sikorsky, lost his position in the Polish unusual government when a traditional government emerged. Hitler is the only person she doesn’t enjoy. In 2020, I wrote a review of her punishment novel.
Anne Applebaum’s record of “little Hitlers” includes past flames like British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former friends who attended her 1999 New Year’s Eve party in Poland while her father, Radek Sikorski, was a member of the foreign ministry, and others. Because they suffer from “authoritarian characteristics,” Applebaum avers, the rogue party guests apparently morphed from democracy activists to Germans.
The old Hungarian straight, the Spanish straight, the French right, the Roman straight, and, with differences, the English straight and the British right, are also included in her list. It’s difficult to tell the difference between Applebaum’s philosophical rage over her father’s career and her individual disappointment with her friends who left the liberal dogmas of 1989.
She may continue to serve as the Neo-Conservative Right’s Don Rickles. Simply put, Applebaum is unable to publish a table or add or subtract.
Hungary may, to be certain, enhance its economic management, but its demographics and family policy accomplishments are remarkable and unique. Every standard deviation identifies its financial achievement as close to or above that of its peers.
David P. Goldman works at the Budapest Corvinus Institute for Advanced Studies as a research fellow and vice editor of Asia Times ( Business ).