Post by Ada on Dec 30, 2016 15:50:32 GMT -4
Let me start here with Russia, from least to most dire:
5. Huge rural-urban gap and a corresponding income gap
Big cities like Moscow or Kazan reach the standard of living of the west. Its a totally different story in the countryside. there is poverty, a decrepit soviet infrrastructure that is crumbling or already crumbled away. The people in the hinterland (glubinka) are notoriously ignored by the goverment and severly underfunded. Russia is the largest land country in the world. We have immense amounts of decent arable land of many climate zones. We could be the no.1 agricultural powerhouse in the world. We are raising our exports, but its all slow and sloppy. Lots of people lose hope, give up on life and cannot brake free from the clutches of the hintherland marasm.
4. Retro-mentality
Both people and the goverment. As in Poland too many people think in terms of "what I deserve?" instead of "how should I work to obtain it". The goverment is busy with "military adventures abroad" instead of fxing the growing problems at home. The administration is notoriously corrupt and filled with cronies and "people who know people". Everyone is treating Russia as some sort of free-for-all buffet and trying to squeaze some juice out for himself and his buddies. Not much changed since Yeltsin in this respect. Kleptocracy, inefficiency, materialism.
3. Low civil and human rights
We have far too much censorship and press supression going as far as the beratings killings of journalists and minority leaders (Reshat Ametov, Aleksandr Babaykin and many others). Police are often very brutal and subserviant to local corrupt politicians, as are the courts. Minorities are economiclaly opressed and denied real politcal autonomy. Local caciques like Markelov rigg elections. Lots of people are doing time for trump-up charges beacue they vote for the "wrong people" or because they speak too loudly about corruption.
2. Abortion
Russia has the highest number of abortions per woman of child-bearing age in the world according to UN data as of 2010. There are regions where more children are are killed than born. Russia is literally commiting suicide as I'm typing this. This is combined with the corresponding problems of substance abuse-related death, depression and suicide. Especially in rural areas.
1. Inefficient, monomaniac economy
The top 3 exports of Russia are Crude Petroleum, Refined Petroleum and Petroleum Gas. I think you see where this is going. Sure natural resources are a great wealth and we need to use it. But we cannot just ignore everything else. Industry is decrepit soviet stuff, or linked to military-political oligarchs. We are closing our civilian-oriented industry, such as the family car manufacturer Moskvitch which went bust. There's many others.
Imports? Top imports of Russia are Cars, Packaged Medicaments, Vehicle Parts, Planes, Helicopters and Computers.
See where this is going? We aren't making any high-tech stuff except arms. Sad but true.
All in all this is not a sustainable economic model. We are chained to oil&gas and if these plummet, we will go under. Moreover the oil&gas wealth does not tricklle down to most of society, just keeps flowing into the foreign bank accounts of oligarchs.
The economic weakness is fueling all the other problems. Its slowly turning into a ticking bomb which will go off if the people in power keep ignoring this.
5. Huge rural-urban gap and a corresponding income gap
Big cities like Moscow or Kazan reach the standard of living of the west. Its a totally different story in the countryside. there is poverty, a decrepit soviet infrrastructure that is crumbling or already crumbled away. The people in the hinterland (glubinka) are notoriously ignored by the goverment and severly underfunded. Russia is the largest land country in the world. We have immense amounts of decent arable land of many climate zones. We could be the no.1 agricultural powerhouse in the world. We are raising our exports, but its all slow and sloppy. Lots of people lose hope, give up on life and cannot brake free from the clutches of the hintherland marasm.
4. Retro-mentality
Both people and the goverment. As in Poland too many people think in terms of "what I deserve?" instead of "how should I work to obtain it". The goverment is busy with "military adventures abroad" instead of fxing the growing problems at home. The administration is notoriously corrupt and filled with cronies and "people who know people". Everyone is treating Russia as some sort of free-for-all buffet and trying to squeaze some juice out for himself and his buddies. Not much changed since Yeltsin in this respect. Kleptocracy, inefficiency, materialism.
3. Low civil and human rights
We have far too much censorship and press supression going as far as the beratings killings of journalists and minority leaders (Reshat Ametov, Aleksandr Babaykin and many others). Police are often very brutal and subserviant to local corrupt politicians, as are the courts. Minorities are economiclaly opressed and denied real politcal autonomy. Local caciques like Markelov rigg elections. Lots of people are doing time for trump-up charges beacue they vote for the "wrong people" or because they speak too loudly about corruption.
2. Abortion
Russia has the highest number of abortions per woman of child-bearing age in the world according to UN data as of 2010. There are regions where more children are are killed than born. Russia is literally commiting suicide as I'm typing this. This is combined with the corresponding problems of substance abuse-related death, depression and suicide. Especially in rural areas.
1. Inefficient, monomaniac economy
The top 3 exports of Russia are Crude Petroleum, Refined Petroleum and Petroleum Gas. I think you see where this is going. Sure natural resources are a great wealth and we need to use it. But we cannot just ignore everything else. Industry is decrepit soviet stuff, or linked to military-political oligarchs. We are closing our civilian-oriented industry, such as the family car manufacturer Moskvitch which went bust. There's many others.
Imports? Top imports of Russia are Cars, Packaged Medicaments, Vehicle Parts, Planes, Helicopters and Computers.
See where this is going? We aren't making any high-tech stuff except arms. Sad but true.
All in all this is not a sustainable economic model. We are chained to oil&gas and if these plummet, we will go under. Moreover the oil&gas wealth does not tricklle down to most of society, just keeps flowing into the foreign bank accounts of oligarchs.
The economic weakness is fueling all the other problems. Its slowly turning into a ticking bomb which will go off if the people in power keep ignoring this.