1 in 3 Romanians at Risk of Poverty or Social Exclusion

1 in 3 Romanians is at risk of poverty or social exclusion. This is the conclusion of the research conducted in 2020 by Eurostat across member states. Romania is the top European country from this perspective, ahead of Bulgaria and Greece. At the European Union level, only 1 in 5 people are at risk of poverty.

How did Romania get to this undesirable position? But it’s elementary. First off, Romania is one of the poorest countries in Europe, with low salaries and low income in general. There are just a few cities to pay better salaries, including Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, but this happens only in a few sectors, such as IT, the financial sector, or real estate.

On top of that, the politicians in the country are more concerned about their own welfare than the population. Social inclusion is such a strange expression to say in Romania that it is used only when it comes to European projects on social inclusion.

Not even these European projects help much, as they are implemented with little success. Most of the funds go to dull communication campaigns, less to the welfare of the people or to social entrepreneurship encouragement.

Maybe it is not a coincidence that Romanians would vote for the Social Democrats. Precisely, 31% of the people would do so in a country led by liberals. On top of that, 9 in 10 Romanians think the country goes down the wrong path.

At the moment, Romania is a country with a developing economy, and the year for year results are encouraging. However, the GDP growth is mostly based on consumption, not on investments. This is why too little of this growth goes to the welfare of the citizens, who are not the beneficiaries but the very engine behind this growth.

What is happening now is the diminishing of purchasing power. This leads to lower consumption, which leads to less fuel for the GDP growth. This ultimately leads to poverty and social exclusion.

It’s not too complicated to be understood, not even by the politicians, right?