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Policemen, public school teachers and alike will be the first ones to notice prices rising faster than their salaries. They will the first to change jobs or bec

Policemen, public school teachers and alike will be the first ones to notice prices rising faster than their salaries. They will the first to change jobs or become largely corrupt on all levels (like it was in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union). Bureaucrats will smell the approaching panic and, instead of trying to retain control over the employees, will privatize as much public goods as possible, again, exactly like during the fall of the Soviet Union. People will see how all promised public services are either abandoned or stolen, I may be reading this wrong, but it seems the author sees the scenario above as preferential to the current system. I am no libertarian, but how can 90s Russia be a good example for a society? Do people saying something like that sometimes leave their abstractions and ask people who were on the ground back then? average life expectancy fell more than 5 years between 1989 and 1994.

VMG 13y ago
> I may be reading this wrong, but it seems the author sees the scenario above as preferential to the current system. I think you are reading this wrong. The author describes a likely outcome under the assumption that some modern societies share characteristics with the former soviet republic.
oleganza 13y ago
Transitional period may have some similarities to USSR fallout, but it's 1) transitional 2) has major difference: in USSR all production was centralized and run by the government officials. In modern Russia everything is very private and only very few services are run by state (and very far from satisfactory). When teachers and cops run from government, they will find jobs and prosperity in the wealthy private market where people pay and save in bitcoins.