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I never said that Russia is evil and all russians are thieves. You just said that. I just compared standard of life there with western first world countries by using gdp per capita rankings, human development rankings, corruption index, life expectancy rankings so not by any stereotypes. And no Russia is not close to western first world countries when it comes to standard of life if you look at that matter objectively by using various statistics, research.
Yet at the same time it's not such a horrible place to live, and if the *changes* you demand can potentially threaten the national security at this point in time, Russians know what choice THEY would make.
I never said that Russia is evil and all russians are thieves. You just said that. I just compared standard of life there with western first world countries by using gdp per capita rankings also by human development rankings, corruption index, life expectancy rankings, cost of living/average wages ratio so not by any stereotypes but by actual figures and statistics. And Russia is not close to western first world countries when it comes to standard of life if you look at that matter objectively by using various statistics, research.
But I did not blame you for this, I spoke in general. As for ratings and studies, this is also a rather controversial issue, because in many of them the indicators of the West are exaggerated and in some cases even distorted, while the indicators of the rest of the world are downgraded, which does not reflect the real situation. Because they are all published in the West on the money of certain customers and it is not profitable for them to expose themselves in a negative light. For example, if you take the ratings of the United States and China, then they can differ dramatically. And who is right?
And some statistics...
Average per capita income of the population of Russia, $ per month: 539 (2017), 521(2018)
Average per capita income of the population of Russia, rubles per month: 31422(2017), 32632 (2018)
Average salary in Russia, rubles per month: 39167(2017), 43400(2018)
Average salary in Russia, $ per month: 672(2017), 692 (2018)
Average salary in Russia at purchasing power parity, $ per month: 1640 (2017)
P.S. And as for corrupt officials, in my opinion, our corrupt officials are just a kindergarten on a walk compared to how "sawing" the us military budget.
Okay I understand your point. But while it is harder in development it can be always improved. I have never been to Alaska, northern Canada, but even though standard of living could be obviously lower in some of these regions that you mentioned than elswhere in those huge countries I do not think that comparing them to Siberia would make Siberia look good in terms of development, infrastructure, standard of living anyway, even though obviously Russia is even bigger country than United States or Canada, so such comparision can never be 100 percent fair. So I agree that my comparision to east Germany was not good. But I just wanted to make a point that when comparing countries, you cannot really compare wealthiest part of some country to the poorest part of other country and make any conclusions based on that, because I often see this practice among some people from central-eastern Europe.
I agree, and I think it it's actually very important to look at the poorest areas when comparing because some countries such as Russia and the US for that matter have severe wealth inequality, except that Siberia is not the poorest part of the country.
The poorest region is the north caucuses, but those parts are not really part of "Russia" and is more comparable to French Guiana. The poorest oblast is Ivanovo Oblast, which surprise is in western Russia and only 300km (186 mi) from Moscow. So please compare Ivanovo to Germans poorest which is Mecklenburg-Vorpommern according to this list.
You're still missing the point; those aren't "excuses". The standard of living in villages in Alaska and parts of northern Canada is lower than elsewhere in the US and southern Canada, and for good reason. It's simply more expensive and more challenging to develop far northern regions. If you want to make a more meaningful comparison, compare East Germany with Western Russia outside the big cities. Go ahead--compare away, have a party! I'm sure you'll find plenty to say, and your findings will have more validity, because those two regions are more similar in terms of the environmental conditions.
Proposing a comparison between Siberia and anywhere in Europe only makes you look clueless about Siberia. I'm actually in agreement with most of your posts; it's just that particular one that was off-base a little.
True, but there are cities in the Russian far north that look much nicer than ones much further south, so in a way it is still an excuse.
And granted once you go into isolated villages development significantly drops, but many villages in Russia are not disconnected from the rest of Russia, and huge bustling cities for that matter.
But here is Nome, Alaska for instance, and admittedly housing there looks very cheap.
But again that is the far north, most Russian's live further south, as do Canadians, so really you should be comparing for instance Winnipeg, Canada's coldest major city
And admittedly again, Winnipeg doesn't appear to be in the greatest shape, especially when compared to Vancouver or Toronto, but at least the roads are paved, which can't be said the same for all of Russia once you leave the major roads.
And granted once you go into isolated villages development significantly drops, but many villages in Russia are not disconnected from the rest of Russia, and huge bustling cities for that matter.
But here is Nome, Alaska for instance, and admittedly housing there looks very cheap.
But again that is the far north, most Russian's live further south, as do Canadians, so really you should be comparing for instance Winnipeg, Canada's coldest major city
And admittedly again, Winnipeg doesn't appear to be in the greatest shape, especially when compared to Vancouver or Toronto, but at least the roads are paved, which can't be said the same for all of Russia once you leave the major roads.
Was Canada in semi-colonial situation back in the beginning of the last century by any chance?
Did it go through the WWI and devastating civil war?
Was it run over during the WWII?
I guess the answer to all these questions is no, then why are we even comparing Canada to Russia?
Was Canada in semi-colonial situation back in the beginning of the last century by any chance?
Did it go through the WWI and devastating civil war?
Was it run over during the WWII?
I guess the answer to all these questions is no, then why are we even comparing Canada to Russia?
because people bring up the excuse that it's a lot more expensive to develop in cold areas, however Canada is a cold country and it can at the very least provide basic services, unlike Russia where you still find dirt roads within the city. And true about the wars, but that was many decades ago, Europe and Asia have moved on since then, why can't Russia? Look I'm not trying to bash on Russia, and obviously the collapse of the Soviet Union was extremely devastating, probably even more so than WWII, but the fact still remains out side of the city center Russia is extremely underdeveloped, and you don't have to travel to Siberia, you can go to very warm Krasnodar and still see it, so climate is not an excuse.
because people bring up the excuse that it's a lot more expensive to develop in cold areas, however Canada is a cold country and it can at the very least provide basic services, unlike Russia where you still find dirt roads within the city. And true about the wars, but that was many decades ago, Europe and Asia have moved on since then, why can't Russia? Look I'm not trying to bash on Russia, and obviously the collapse of the Soviet Union was extremely devastating, probably even more so than WWII, but the fact still remains out side of the city center Russia is extremely underdeveloped, and you don't have to travel to Siberia, you can go to very warm Krasnodar and still see it, so climate is not an excuse.
Because ( unlike Europe) Russia does not invest in the long-term projects; it doesn't invest in itself.
Whatever money the government accumulated after all the recent collapses, it uses to accumulate only more capital with it, keeping it in "secure places," and investing them internally only in short -term projects.
It runs very lean budget, barely covering the needs of population, but making sure that it hedges against any possible dangers of the "World markets" ( read Western banking,) that can crush the ruble and so on. It avoids the danger of borrowing capital ( in case of any possible collapse,) because it will lead to political dependency and commands from Washington.
And ( unlike Europe) it pays for its own military complex, without anybody's help.
With other words - it puts the security of the state above all yet again, and that's why internal projects ( such as infrastructure and what's not,) projects that require long-term investments take the back seat.
And granted once you go into isolated villages development significantly drops, but many villages in Russia are not disconnected from the rest of Russia, and huge bustling cities for that matter.
But here is Nome, Alaska for instance, and admittedly housing there looks very cheap.
But again that is the far north, most Russian's live further south, as do Canadians, so really you should be comparing for instance Winnipeg, Canada's coldest major city
And admittedly again, Winnipeg doesn't appear to be in the greatest shape, especially when compared to Vancouver or Toronto, but at least the roads are paved, which can't be said the same for all of Russia once you leave the major roads.
So and want to answer words which sounded slightly higher, only a bit paraphrasing..
Quote:
And what those nice pictures from Canada prove? Seriously you can find nice pictures from Nigeria, Romania, Cuba, basically from every underdeveloped nation. It does not prove anything.
But seriously, by and large it all depends on the finances and size of the country. Russia simply can not take and print as much money as they want, as does the United States. Because the" good " IMF forbade Russia to spend more money than the country receives income from oil and gas above a certain price. It's called the "Budget rule." I. e. let's say if the cost of a barrel of oil is $ 40 in the budget rule, and it is traded for $ 60, then you have no right to spend this difference. And should buy on them US treasuries. What is US debt, in my opinion, it's just money made out of thin air. Yes, if Russia had $ 20 trillion it would be all rolled up in asphalt in 3 layers.
Your trouble is that you can not objectively look at things and you think by cliches and stereotypes that exist in the West. I understand that into your head all your life hammered that communism is evil, Russia is evil, Russian all thieves and drunkards... As indeed and us, too, most about the US and the West in a whole. But the world has changed, and it can no longer be said that the West is completely dominant. And you don't want to or can't admit it. And as for immigrants, now more and more people began to return back from Germany, the United States and other countries. Because the standard of living in Russia has approached the standard of living in the West. I do not speak. that he's level, but he's substantially closer.
Look at the flow of people to the West. How many from the West emigrate to Russia?
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