about romania:
it's pretty easy to just pull up wikipedia links and say HEY LOOK GDP IS GOING UP!!! but that's pretty much ignoring everything else about the country as a whole. i've actually been there, and the place is a fucking mess. there's still a shitload of buildings that are STILL ruined from ww2 and it just looks like a wasteland disaster. crime is VERY common there and there are a lot of poor people. and by a lot, I mean a LOT. there are old homeless people scattered all over the street begging for change looking as if they haven't eaten/taken a shower in years. imagine a north american homeless person but infinitely worse. and these people are EVERYWHERE. plus there are tons of shitty villages everywhere. btw, lolling at the detroit analogy. also driving is insane and there are pretty much no rules on the road nor with the police. if you're speeding, just give the cop some money and everything's fine!! this is basically a country with almost no laws outside of THE CAPITAL.
but yeah, this isn't to say that there aren't other shittier european countries, because there are, but that doesn't make romania any less shitty. *pulls up a wikipedia statistic*