I'm Elise Hugh. You're listening to TED Talks Daily. Today we have a talk from Latvia that applies to all of us across the world. In telling us about the hardships in her home country, sociologist Lienn Ozolina dismantles the idea that personal responsibility is what will cure social ills,

like poverty and wealth inequality. Her talk is from TEDx Riga in 2019.

It was a cold, sunny March day. I was walking along the street in Riga. I remember the winter was slowly coming to an end.

There were still some snow around here and there,

but the pavement was already clear and dry.

If you've lived in Riga, you'll know that feeling of relief

that the first signs of spring bring,

and you no longer have to trudge through that slushy mix of snow and mud on the streets.

So there I am, enjoying my stroll,

as I suddenly notice a stencil on the pavement in front of me,

a graffiti.

White letters painted on these dark gray bricks.

It says, where is your responsibility?

The question stopped me in my tracks.

As I'm standing there, considering its meaning,

I notice I'm standing outside the Riga municipality social welfare department.

So it appears that the author of this graffiti, whoever it is,

is asking this question to people coming to apply for social assistance.

That winter, I had been doing research on the

aftermath of the financial crisis in Latvia. When the global financial crisis erupted in 2008,

Latvia got hit hard as a small open economy. To balance the books, the Latin government shows a strategy of internal

devaluation. Now, in essence, that meant drastically reducing public budget spending. So,

...