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The government had initially tried to calm protesters by conceding a reduction in the price of liquefied natural gas (LNG), setting it at 50 tenge (€0.1) per

by f311a 5y ago

The government had initially tried to calm protesters by conceding a reduction in the price of liquefied natural gas (LNG), setting it at 50 tenge (€0.1) per litre, compared with 120 at the start of the year — a significant increase in a country where the minimum wage is 42,500 tenge (€98.7) a month. The price of the gas has doubled (the link does not mention it).

kspacewalk2 5y ago
>the minimum wage is 42,500 tenge (€98.7) a month. Surprising. Ukraine, where I'm from, has a minimum wage of €200 despite being resource-poor and simply poor-poor, if you go by relatively objective measures like GDP per capita with PPP. But oil-rich Kazakhstan seems to really keep their hoi polloi on a lean diet.
- sofixa 5y ago
  It's all a matter of costs and standard of living. Oil (and generally resource rich countries) have a tough line to thread between spreading the riches among the population without making the said population dependent on that sharing ( e.g. Venezuela) and hoarding at the top. Most fail miserably, and honestly the only one i can think of doing a great job is Norway, and it was mostly by accident.
  - int_19h 5y ago
    The reason why Norway is an exception is largely because its liberal democratic political system was already well-developed by the time it became a heavy oil producer. https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs?t=758 https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs?t=758
  - BurningFrog 5y ago
    Norway already had a rich modern economy before they struck oil.
  - qnsi 5y ago
    what about US?
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  Resource curse. Economies that depend on a single extraction resource tend to be pretty stagnant and rife with corruption. There’s also the issue that they need to discourage local consumption of the export resource, since local consumption doesn’t enrich the country, even if the locals need to consume to not freeze to death.

by f311a 5y ago

kspacewalk2 5y ago

>the minimum wage is 42,500 tenge (€98.7) a month. Surprising. Ukraine, where I'm from, has a minimum wage of €200 despite being resource-poor and simply poor-poor, if you go by relatively objective measures like GDP per capita with PPP. But oil-rich Kazakhstan seems to really keep their hoi polloi on a lean diet.

sofixa 5y ago
It's all a matter of costs and standard of living. Oil (and generally resource rich countries) have a tough line to thread between spreading the riches among the population without making the said population dependent on that sharing ( e.g. Venezuela) and hoarding at the top. Most fail miserably, and honestly the only one i can think of doing a great job is Norway, and it was mostly by accident.
- int_19h 5y ago
  The reason why Norway is an exception is largely because its liberal democratic political system was already well-developed by the time it became a heavy oil producer. https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs?t=758 https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs?t=758
- BurningFrog 5y ago
  Norway already had a rich modern economy before they struck oil.
- qnsi 5y ago
  what about US?
ashtonkem 5y ago
Resource curse. Economies that depend on a single extraction resource tend to be pretty stagnant and rife with corruption. There’s also the issue that they need to discourage local consumption of the export resource, since local consumption doesn’t enrich the country, even if the locals need to consume to not freeze to death.