VOL. IV (XXI) 2009 - Departamentul de Filosofie si Stiinte ale ...

56 CONSUMPTION AND CONSUMER IN NEW FREE MARKET ECONOMIES
countries from Eastern Europe were tried to overcome the consequences of
communist era by following a capitalist way in order to improve the
economics status of their inhabitants which was so badly affected in the last
few decades of communism. Of course, every country from the new free
area in Eastern Europe did this in its specific way and it would be completely
absurd to try to disclose a general pattern of evolution in terms of economic
changes. However, it is clear that the fall of communism was brought a
general hope of improving the economic status for the citizens of Eastern
Europe. And the way in which hope was supposed to become reality
consisted, with no exception, in adopting the western capitalist way of
economy.
It is not our purpose to uncover the multitude of ways in which these
Eastern Europe countries have indeed tried to enter into a capitalist orbit.
Anyway, what it is certain is the fact that all of these nations were supposed
to deliver for its citizens the capitalist welfare in the mode of consumption
society. It is our purpose in this short study to unveil some characteristics of
what we believe that is fundamental for the mentality of the individuals from
the new capitalist states in Eastern Europe regarding the so called
“consumption society”.
The first observation which can be made is the fact that the economies
from the Eastern Europe, after the collapse of the communism, are very far
away, in terms of structural development, from the western economies. It is
just the pure fact that in the Eastern part of the old continent there was not
enough historic time to accumulate wealth in terms of industrial base and
infrastructure in all its senses. The reasons for this situation are multiple but
all of them can be reduced to some kind of historical gap, in terms of
mentality and economy between the East and the West. However,
regardless the way in which we look at these countries it is very obvious that
their economies are not self-sufficient in order to satisfy the basic needs for
their people and simultaneously to create that specific type of surplus which
in the end has made possible the birth of consumption society in the West.
Of course, it would be very hard to deny that these Eastern countries did not
try to accommodate after the fall of communism with western mentality in
terms of consumption and free economy. However, their effort is in vane not
because there are not prepare for change but because the difference is
simply too big.
The observation that Eastern European countries are simply too far
away from the strong western economies could very rapidly lead us to two
intermediate conclusions. The first one consist in the idea that Eastern
European consumer does not have the feeling that he belongs to a real
capitalist economy but more likely the feeling that something very difficult
and elaborate must be recuperated in order to really enter in that area. And
this because the gap can not be surpassed only through pure will or by
implementing in a very fast mode the main frame of the free market
economy. This felling is not always recognized but, however, almost every