Putin Claims Oligarchs Demand to be Taxed; Earlier People Were Claimed to Have "Demanded" Higher Gas Prices (Baghdad, gasoline)
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The more things change the more they stay the same. In 1978 Soviet motorists were said to have "demanded" higher gasoline prices (link):
Quote:
Originally Posted by March 2, 1978 New York Times
Thousands of Soviet drivers, he said, had complained that what they were paying for gasoline was too little in comparison with prices in the rest of the world. Later, he explained that world commodity prices for imported goods had risen sharply in recent years and that the cost of finding, drilling and delivering oil from Siberia by pipeline had also gone up.
That gave my college friends at Cornell and I, one a Russian Studies major, a good laugh. Some things never change. From today's MSN news feed (link):
Quote:
Originally Posted by MSN
Russia approved a draft bill to slap up to a 10% one-off windfall tax on large Russian companies, according to a Tuesday announcement by the country's finance ministry.
It's targeted towards companies that annually made more than 1 billion rubles, or $11.9 million, in profits since 2021, per the announcement. ***
Belousov told RBC, a business channel, that the companies themselves proposed the taxes.
"They understand that they had huge windfall profits for 2021 and 2022, simply massive, bigger than the budget," Belousov said, per Interfax. "I have a lot of respect [for the entrepreneurs]. Many of them are true patriots, no matter what people say about them. They identify very closely with the country."
Good for a laugh at least. Some things defy parody.
I guess one could call such a person an economic masochist.
So what such a government is actually claiming is... "Our citizenry is demanding that we torture them more intensely than we already do. They actually WANT their own stomachs to start growling. And of course, we are happy to oblige and grant their wish."
Well Russia is run by a former KGB Soviet thug. Now he's just a plain ol ordinary thug, but he has obviously held on to his old ideas and strategies. So this is to be expected.
Quote:
Originally Posted by North Beach Person
How many Americans on here have demanded higher gas prices, either through taxes or restricting production. For the children or something.
America has plenty of communists (unfortunately).
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisC
I guess one could call such a person an economic masochist.
So what such a government is actually claiming is... "Our citizenry is demanding that we torture them more intensely than we already do. They actually WANT their own stomachs to start growling. And of course, we are happy to oblige and grant their wish."
Putin has to repackage all the hardships he has delivered as something palatable for the masses. Not an easy task. Basically, he must convince the people that their suffering is not in vain, and it is for a righteous and noble struggle against an imaginary oppressor. I'm kind of surprised he did not blame it all on Ukraine or Biden.
At any rate, this is why he and his media refers to the Ukrainian defenders as "nazis"... Because Russians still look back to WW2 as their glory days, when they defeated the nazis. It was their "great patriotic war". Putin is trying to restore that mindset and sense of nationalistic and patriotic pride... Anything to make the people feel good about the very real struggle their nation is now enduring... And failing miserably at that.
I guess one could call such a person an economic masochist.
So what such a government is actually claiming is... "Our citizenry is demanding that we torture them more intensely than we already do. They actually WANT their own stomachs to start growling. And of course, we are happy to oblige and grant their wish."
Obviously search stories are good for a laugh, or are propagated by the likes of “Baghdad, Bob or Goebbels. Both the recent and the 1978 assertions are obviously propaganda.
Obviously search stories are good for a laugh, or are propagated by the likes of “Baghdad, Bob or Goebbels. Both the recent and the 1978 assertions are obviously propaganda.
I meant "such stories." SIRI gone mad.
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