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The "higher" standard of living in Tito's former Yugoslavia: Myth or reality?

2022-07-03 13:36:11Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The "higher" standard of living in Tito's former Yugoslavia: Myth
Tito

About the life and standard of living in the time of Yugoslavia, those who lived in that period often speak with nostalgia. The list of reasons for Yugo-nostalgia is long, but first of all, unity and solidarity between people, peace, class equality and generally the standard of living with which most citizens were satisfied stand out.

The dominant middle class

In the previous system of government, the working middle class dominated, so social and economic differences between citizens were not visible, which enabled social peace and social harmony.

From a time distance of at least 30 years, when many social, political, economic, cultural and technological circumstances have changed, it is ungrateful to make classical comparisons of living standards. However, it is worth taking a look back at life then and now.

Those who lived and worked in the former Yugoslavia note that in the early 1980s, a liter of milk could be bought for 9.9 dinars, a liter of cooking oil for 28.6 dinars, a kilogram of potatoes for 9.31 dinars , a liter of petrol for 18.5 denars... Translated into today's circumstances, the basic cost of living was low.

Salary below average for 80 percent of employees

According to available data, the average salary in Yugoslavia was 6,109 dinars or about 400 German marks at that time, while the average expenditure, i.e. the consumption basket of a family of four was about 8,300 dinars, or about 550 marks.

However, it is worth noting that 80 percent of employed citizens then received wages below the average and the least paid were textile workers. In this respect, the situation is not better even today, if you take into account the statistics according to which over 65 percent of employees in North Macedonia (and the situation is not significantly better in neighboring countries), work with a monthly salary lower than average.

Was the unemployment rate high in Yugoslavia?

More than half a million people immigrated to Western countries, mainly Germany, in the first five years after Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito opened the borders between 1968 and 1973. Later, that number rose by another million.

The drop in unemployment in those years coincided with the number of people who emigrated. Official data on unemployment in the RSFJ show that in the eighties it was generally around 15-16 percent. The problem arose when unemployment over the years increased exponentially from year to year.

Free but not available

In the 1980s, the crisis was caused by inflation and the shortage of some goods in the market. This was solved with favorable loans, consumption restrictions or by issuing bonds for certain goods.

For example, the price of beef was initially high, 138 dinars per kilogram, or about 9 marks. The population reacted to the high price of meat, which is why the then federal government of Yugoslavia decided to lower the price of beef to 120 dinars per kilogram, and of chicken to 56 dinars.

But after only a few days, there was no meat in the butchers, and this was a rare occurrence, because the slaughterhouses did not want to deliver meat at reduced prices. Therefore, the then authorities made a decision by which they determined compensation for the normalization of market conditions.

The current price of beef in markets and butchers has reached about 600 denars per kilogram. In translation, if thirty years ago you could buy 50 kilograms of meat for an average salary, today with the current average salary in North Macedonia you can buy about 40 kilograms.

Lower consumption of other services

At that time, consumption of other services was much lower than today because there were no mobile phones, fuel consumption was lower per capita because there were incomparably fewer cars. Housing was secured in such a way that there was no mortgage loan or repayment, utilities were more of a social category than today and expenses were incomparably lower.

With artificial growth until the greatest crisis

People remember the seventies of the last century when the standard was raised thanks to borrowing and the orientation of funds for public spending. Therefore, Yugo-nostalgists remember the "golden seventies".

However, if we go into a deeper analysis, we can conclude that this artificial growth led to the biggest crisis in the history of Yugoslavia, which significantly contributed to its disintegration.

The industry in which it was invested did not bring the expected benefit and turned out to be a stone in the neck. In 1983, Yugoslavia officially went bankrupt, but never announced this to its citizens, and stopped paying all its debts abroad, resulting in a severe shortage of many products from the food industry.

Excessive debts

Yugoslavia entered 1991 with about $20 billion in debt. Her debt was considered unpayable. Previously, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had reduced the debt by 1.8 billion dollars, because the country simply did not have the means to repay the interest, much less the principal.

In an effort to save the Yugoslav economy, the United States provided about 3.5 billion dollars to stabilize the dinar, but within six months these funds proved insufficient. Such conditions were preceded by several decades of building an economy whose structure was such that its survival depended precisely on the continuous growth of foreign debt.

Contrary to popular myths today, the economy of Yugoslavia was not based on the profits of industry - in fact, it did not exist. Instead, all of Yugoslavia's industry operated at a loss, exclusively through borrowing, remittances from foreign workers, and tourism.

However, equality, solidarity and belief in values ​​remain valid for nostalgic memories of a very different time. But the questions remain open whether there could have been a different management in the former common state and if so, would this mean a better economic position of the region in which we live now. /TRT Balkan/


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

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