politics
March 25, 2026
How Everyone Manages
If Zeno were our contemporary, he would include in his paradoxes that life in Serbia is actually impossible, yet people live it. Someone more adept at calculations and economics could mathematically prove this thesis. Simply put, when earnings are compared to needs and prices, it cannot even reach a *positive zero*, as we euphemistically call making ends meet.
TL;DR
- The paradox of life in Serbia: earnings versus costs suggest impossibility, yet people live.
- Average salary figures are misleading; most people earn significantly less.
- The cost of living in Belgrade is comparable to expensive European cities when adjusted for income.
- Survival is linked to remittances from 'gastarbeiters', the grey economy, and 'managing' (petty corruption).
- Many transactions, like craft work and apartment rentals, operate outside formal rules and taxes.
- Petty corruption and 'shortcuts' are normalized as a modus vivendi to overcome financial difficulties.
- Western countries have less petty corruption but more significant corruption might exist.
- Attempts to introduce order would face resistance due to economic necessity and electoral consequences.
- The population's call for honesty often excludes their own small-scale corrupt practices.
- Personal change is needed to address the systemic corruption, but individuals are reluctant to be the first.
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