Analytics, Book review, Crisis, Financial Services, Latvia, Society

The survey about lessons learnt from the crisis years shows that 70% of Latvians have learnt to handle their money more carefully and not live beyond their means, 60% said they had learnt to rely on themselves and not expect help from others, and 46% said that the crisis had taught them to change.

Meanwhile, 37% of the polled people said they had realized the necessity to save, and 30% realized the importance of mutual cooperation.

Also, 17% of respondents said that the crisis showed the necessity to improve public administration, 14% named the necessity to improve the quality of education and 10% of respondents said the crisis caused them to consider involvement in politics.

The authors of the book conclude that the respondents’ answers reveal orientation towards individual solutions, which means the crisis promoted mainly individualistic trends. Emigration has been named as a striking example of dealing with the crisis-related issues, which can be explained by low confidence in the government and dislike of the strategy chosen by the government to cope with the crisis.