Why do economies of Eastern European countries struggle?

The effect of communism.

Explanation:

Large portion of Eastern European countries used to be controlled by the Soviet Union, who imposed a strong government control over all resources through a Communists System.

Under their system, the government owned every factors of production that exist in the country. Making it impossible for the common citizens to own property. As a result, the incentives that the people have to work harder/contribute more to the economy basically non-existent. This eventually led to their downfall. After the Soviet Union was disbanded, the after-affect of their bad economic system still felt by their ex-members.

the earth’s crust is broken into separate pieces called tectonic plates (fig. 7.14). recall that the crust is the solid, rocky, outer shell of the planet. it is composed of two distinctly different types of material: the less-dense continental crust and the more-dense oceanic crust. both types of crust rest atop solid, upper mantle material. the upper mantle, in turn, floats on a denser layer of lower mantle that is much like thick molten tar.

each tectonic plate is free-floating and can move independently. earthquakes and volcanoes are the direct result of the movement of tectonic plates at fault lines. the term fault is used to describe the boundary between tectonic plates. most of the earthquakes and volcanoes around the pacific ocean basin—a pattern known as the “ring of fire”—are due to the movement of tectonic plates in this region. other observable results of short-term plate movement include the gradual widening of the great rift lakes in eastern africa and the rising of the himalayan mountain range. the motion of plates can be described in four general patterns:

collision: when two continental plates are shoved together

subduction: when one plate plunges beneath another (fig. 7.15)

spreading: when two plates are pushed apart (fig. 7.15)

transform faulting: when two plates slide past each other (fig. 7.15)