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Russia has tons of oil and gas I dont understand how Russia could be so poor with all those resources. Most countries with alot of oil are pretty rich unless they are like India and have over a billion people in the country. It seems like the common denominator is communism eh?
Putin and his cronies are extremely rich. It's almost like they're stealing from the Russian people or something.
If you believe Russia has a communist economy and government, your understanding of the country is about a quarter of a century out of date.
Russia is actually a fine example of what true capitalism looks like. Sure, there are some residues left over from the communist era, like state-provided healthcare and a social safety net, but that healthcare is generally pretty crap and the net has lots of holes in it.
In many ways, Russia now is similar to what the USA and UK were like back in the 19th and early 20th centuries when a few men were able to accumulate vast wealth and freely exploit ordinary people because their close ties with politicians ensured the state didn't interfere with them. And by "close ties" I mean bribes, back-handers, and state contracts granted to pals rather than a system open to public scrutiny.
If you've read or heard anything about Russia recently, you've probably come across the term "oligarch". This word was coined to describe a particular class of extremely wealthy and powerful people who appeared in Russia following the collapse of the USSR. Because of their close connections with the post-Soviet government, they were able to swoop in and take over previously government owned and operated businesses during the rush to privatise everything. Those close and very often deliberately obscured connections allowed these men to prosper, the benefits of that flowed to their political cronies, and the oligarchs - being of a similar predatory and grasping mindset - often worked in concert to accumulate more wealth and screw ordinary Russians even more effectively. So, like I said, they're model capitalists.
Another silly assumption from you. You assume alot of things. No I dont think russia is a communist economy. Obviously I was referring to them being behind western countries because they tried communism while we were doing capitalism. Meaning they didnt have the same starting point.
Venezuela is another example that communism is the common denominator based on how rich they were before communism and then after communism became very poor. Venezuela has more tapped crude oil reserves than anyone there's no reason they should be this bad off. But government spending collapsed their currency and sanctions didnt help.
I could also point out problems with India and Brazil but I dont want to make this too long. While they didnt have communism they had extreme socialist business killing laws that set them behind despite them being rich in resources.
didn't chavez's socialist reform drop poverty in venezuela by like 20%? the "country" was rich before, but just oligarchs who sold oil to foreign companies. the decline happened later, after he had then decided to fire thousands of workers from the state's oil company... again, to sell more and more overseas instead of paying salaries. thus resulting in wealth leaving the country, and a great loss of technical expertise, from which it all went downhill. so it was mostly poor management caused by greed
Yes the poverty levels dropped initially but the government spending caused inflation rates to go crazy because they could not afford all the social programs and reform they promised. The rich people left and they couldnt find anyone to tax. So they tried to print their way out of it. Their inflation rate went up to an annual 2,000,000%. We are freaking out in the USA because ours is 11%. This is why I favor a decentralized economy.
i don't know, to me the moral of the story seems to be "don't trust the rich" more than anything. anyway i do agree about decentralizing stuff, which is why i'm probably more of an anarchist than a socialist even if i'm both.
But this is how I see it. Atleast under capitalism the market sets the wages and the prices not the corporations. It goes off supply and demand. Bezos cant pay minimum wage even if he wants. He wont have employees.
But under communism the government can set the wages and the prices because they control everything. And the problem you have with government is the same that you have with corporations, theyre both run by greedy evil people with no heart. People think the government can come in and save us but you'll have the same problem with the government you have with corporations, again cause theyre run by people and people are the reason things go to hell.
They'll be even poorer after all these sanctions that America and the EU have shoved-up their ass.
Cant eat gas. They are a net importer of food. They are the largest country in the world yet has the GDP of Italy. They are spread too thin both economically and culturally.
it's good old authoritarianism, greed, capitalism, the usual. just cause a country is rich, doesn't mean it's people are. just the state, or corporations. it's as it's always been, ever since... ancient mesopotamia or something. sadly, people will always try to take over others