One of the leading Croatian newspapers has an interesting article today about the “only” way out of the economic crisis that is gripping the country: legalization of gambling, prostitution, and drugs. The fellow who has offered the idea has been working in tourism for many a year. He is from the island of Žirje near Šibenik on the Adriatic coast. As he claims, his island is ideal for all of the above. But I would go a step further along the same lines: gambling, prostitution, and drugs should be legalized across the whole country. After all, it is but a small island in the world. It would become a tourist haven in no time. And tourism is the only “industry” that has survived the complete and total devastation of the Croatian economy since independence. If good ideas for recovery are needed, here they definitely are. Come to think of it, the same idea can be extended to Europe as a whole. The moribund sub-continent would recover in a jiffy. Hooray!

Addendum (December 4, 2014)

The Croatian economy is in shambles. The country’s output has been sinking for some six years in a row, but the government appears to be entirely clueless about the way forward. The prime minister and his fellow ministers are ever more ridiculous in their fumbling. Every single idea they have come up with to promote growth is incoherent to boot. The best idea about the way out of the economic crisis is indeed the one proposed by the tourism expert from the island of Žirje. Gambling, prostitution, and drugs would do wonders for the entire country rather than his island alone. The same holds for Europe, as well. Just like Croatia, the European Union has lost its way. The Union’s economy is in shambles. All the ideas that come from Brussels are pitiful at best. The whole subcontinent would flourish with the legalization of gambling prostitution, and drugs. As I have argued repeatedly over the years, this was the way Venice had managed to survive the decline of its trade upon the discovery of an ocean route from Europe to Asia at the end of the Fifteenth Century (“Like Venice Past Her Prime: A Letter to The Economist,” March 2, 2005). Add art and culture to the recipe from Žirje, and Europe will flourish again to the delight of the whole world.