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Russians didn't give two shits about "free access to information", they cared to see that people in US lived richer lives that's it. Russians in Soviet union h
by epolanski 2y ago
Russians didn't give two shits about "free access to information", they cared to see that people in US lived richer lives that's it.
Russians in Soviet union had to illegally trade and commit felonies to get their hands on some Italian mortadella. They had to go through insane lengths to buy a new tv.
It wasn't glasnost but the oil crisis that ultimately killed the SU's economy and made people think that in democracy it was gonna be better.
Is it better? In absolute terms, yes, but so is virtually everyone in the world compared to 1989.
In terms of gdp per capita Soviet russia was 33rd in the world in that year. Modern Russia is 52nd.
But you wouldn't be able to say that such a massive decline happened when modern Russia is far cleaner, richer and very low unemployment.
Modern Russians are richer in absolute terms, but poorer in relative ones.
- abernard1 2y ago> In terms of gdp per capita Soviet russia was 33rd in the world in that year. Modern Russia is 52nd. GDP was also calculated based upon prices in a free market. The problem being, if you don't have a free market, you don't have an efficient way of knowing if the "value" of the goods produced actually mattered. The Soviet Union massively overproduced goods that nobody wanted, as this was efficient for production. But in terms of quality of life, it didn't matter. Overabundances and shortages were the norm.
- gottorf 2y ago> richer in absolute terms, but poorer in relative ones. Off topic, but it's funny how big of a problem this turns out to be in real life.
- nradov 2y agoGDP calculations for the Soviet Union were bullshit and not to be relied upon. The numbers were heavily manipulated, and much of the country ran on a command economy where money didn't even mean much because you couldn't buy things with it.