"Due to the difficult situation in the country..."

"Due to the difficult situation in the country..." I see these words very often in the posts of authors on Steemit. Indeed, economic conditions in many countries are far from good. The general low level of income negatively affects all aspects of the life of every member of society.

Most of the time, people complain about the "situation" that happened, as something that happened by itself, as if they were just unlucky. They think that they were born in a "poor" country, and it is poor for certain objective reasons.

Why is Venezuela poor with huge reserves of oil and gas, with paradise beaches where millions of tourists should be? Why is Nigeria, Africa's second largest oil country, poor? I did not accidentally choose these two countries as an example, because there are many authors from these countries here on Steemit.

So, as you can see, both countries have resources, but both countries cannot be called rich, especially considering the income of the population. And there are more than a hundred such countries in the world.

I also live in a relatively poor country, Ukraine. In the 90s, there was a deep economic crisis here, after which the gradual growth of the economy began. I know exactly from my own experience the reason for the poverty of countries. If the population in your country has low incomes, there is only one reason for this - inefficient management. This is true. Any number of resources can be managed effectively and I have two concrete examples for you. These are examples when a positive result was achieved without investing a single penny, only by changing the system.

Association of co-owners of an apartment building

For many years, Ukraine had problems with maintaining thousands of old apartment buildings inherited from the Soviet Union. In every city, there are entire blocks that consist of hideous gray high-rise buildings that have no architectural value whatsoever. But thousands of people live in these houses and these houses had to be maintained in proper condition. This was supposed to be done by housing and communal services, but this system did not work. Every year, these housing and communal facilities were drowning in debt, and people did not receive proper services. The houses had problems with the roofs, the entrances were never repaired, there was water in the basements, the facades of the houses were terrible, and the walls were not insulated. And this is only a small part of the problems faced by residents of apartment buildings.

Years passed, and the situation only worsened. The authorities have always said that the housing and communal services cannot function properly because some people do not pay for apartments, the main pipelines are too old and need a lot of money to repair, the pipelines in the houses are also outdated and many other reasons. To prevent the system from collapsing, and the heating season from being interrupted, the local government allocated huge sums of money from the city budget every year to partially repay the debts of housing and communal enterprises. And the authorities constantly said that there was no other way, "due to the difficult situation in the country."

But it turned out that there is another way, and it does not require a single penny of additional money. It was simply necessary to change the system. In Ukraine, a reform was carried out, within the framework of which housing and communal services were liquidated, and residents of each apartment building could create an Association of co-owners of an apartment building. One house is one legal entity. Residents of the building gather for meetings, elect the head of the association, and they can choose an initiative group from among the residents to help him. After that, the chairman of the association, who is the head of a legal entity with the appropriate powers, begins to manage the house as the residents of a particular building want, the residents who elected him and to whom he is accountable.

The association of co-owners of an apartment building has funds. These are taxes that residents of this building pay for apartments. And they set the tariff themselves.

At my former job, just in my office, there was a co-worker. She is a very enterprising woman and was elected head of her apartment building. She performed her duties outside of working hours. Her house was a model of terrible neglect. During the 10 years of activity of this head of the association, the facade of the building was completely renovated, all walls were insulated, pipelines and sewers were replaced, the area around the house was improved, barriers and speed limiters were installed, surveillance cameras were installed, all entrances were repaired, etc. This was made possible by the taxes that people paid for their apartments. The same taxes that they paid before the emergence of the Association of co-owners of an apartment building. Thus, you can do something without investing additional funds.

I now observe similar success stories in many houses, in particular, in the one where I bought an apartment 6 years ago. Positive changes in each individual building gradually change the overall appearance of the entire city for the better.

Of course, like any system, this one also has its drawbacks. These shortcomings lie in the human factor. Not all people can self-organize and create an Association of co-owners of an apartment building. Someone has conflicts, and somewhere people are too passive. For such a case, there are management companies that are very similar to former housing and utility companies. One management company can serve several or several tens of houses. But there is competition between management companies, which encourages them to work at least a little. However, in terms of efficiency, these management companies are far inferior to the Association of co-owners of multi-apartment buildings.

Decentralization

Another example of a successful change in the system, which made it possible to achieve significantly better results without attracting additional funds, was the decentralization reform. This is a complex reform and I will not go into its details. We are interested in only one component of this reform.

Previously, all taxes went to the state budget, and from there they were distributed to the regions. Of course, from Kyiv it was not very clear where in the small town of Kalush a road needs to be repaired or a bridge built. The efficiency of the allocation of funds was extremely low, and the opportunities for corruption were enormous.

After the decentralization reform, a significant part of taxes remains in the city budget. Local authorities know much better where and how best to use them.

As a result of the decentralization reform in my city, roads were repaired, business conditions were created, including the creation of an industrial park, roads were repaired in the surrounding villages, the issue of garbage disposal was solved, and much more.

Conclusions

Ukraine is a country where a brutal war is raging. The standard of living here is quite low and I cannot show you the right way to develop your country. But I can share my experience. Experience shows that the only reason for the low standard of living in the country is the high level of corruption. The funds are directed not to the development of the country, but to the accounts of individuals. The creation of anti-corruption bodies does not solve this issue in full. In Ukraine, civil society fights corruption most effectively. Our officials fear publicity more than arrest. It is precisely in order to look positive in the eyes of society that they are forced to make successful reforms.

Successful reforms are system changes. It is not attracting additional funds from other countries or taking loans, it is creating such a system so that already existing money is used more efficiently. It is possible, it is very necessary.

Elections are not a simple formality. This is one of your few chances to have at least a little influence on what is happening in the country. But not everything is decided at the election. You need independent media, courageous journalists, lots of persistent activists and volunteers. It is necessary that there are fewer and fewer people in society who simply go with the flow.

I wish that one day poverty in the world will be overcome! 😃