Thread: 1000$ - much or little?

Originally Posted by Zombie Acorn

I think in America apartments have a "temporary" feel to them, most people want to buy a house and move out if they can afford it. It might just be a culture difference.

Oh, I see now. Well, in Russia, most people DO own the apartments they stay in; and if someone doesn't own or co-own an apartment, his situation is quite unenviable (such person, administratively, is a "бомж" which means a vagrant). Although in Moscow, there are, of course, a lot of people from various cities of the whole country who don't have their own flat and rent one. But the overwhelming majority of people who live in Moscow have their own flat.

It's a little like people in Moscow lives in condos. When you go into an apartment it is really pretty nice, but the buildings these nice apartments are in are just the opposite. Unlike the condos, the buildings are no one's personal property and no one takes care of them. Some of them are like the public housing you find in a ghetto in an American city-- graffitti in the stairwells, cigarette butts strewn about, light bulbs missing from hallways because people have stolen them.

One year is long term?? Money things are often based on the year -- yearly income tax, salary, insurance premiums, magazine subscriptions. Zombie does not pay his $30-a month car insurance on a monthly basis. Some things we do pay monthly -- mortgage, rent, phone, utility bills. I pay my Medicare bill (yes, I'm that old!) quarterly and my car insurance semi-annually, because it is too big a bill to pay all at once and keep the budget afloat. I make some monthly donations to charities and also annual.

Originally Posted by chaika

It's a little like people in Moscow lives in condos. When you go into an apartment it is really pretty nice, but the buildings these nice apartments are in are just the opposite. Unlike the condos, the buildings are no one's personal property and no one takes care of them. Some of them are like the public housing you find in a ghetto in an American city-- graffitti in the stairwells, cigarette butts strewn about, light bulbs missing from hallways because people have stolen them.

Not all buildings are like that. Recently there's been a change of regulation and so called ТСЖ (Товарищество собственников жилья - a very close equivalent of condominiums) started appearing. Before that any building had been considered municipal property (even though all apartments in it were private) and thus the city authorities were supposed to take care of these 'municipal' parts of buildings. With obvious results. Presently, the building ownership can be transferred to ТСЖ and thus the residents can choose who should maintain their building. In such cases the interiors of 'common' parts are quite clean and nice. Some even have flowers and tapestries inside.

Columbo: 1971-1978, 1989-1998, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1466074/

$1,000.00 in 1971 had about the same buying power as $5,425.85 in 2010. /$1,000.00 in 2010 had about the same buying power as $184.30 in 1971.
$1,000.00 in 1981 had about the same buying power as $2,502.31 in 2010.
$1,000.00 in 1991 had about the same buying power as $1,613.97 in 2010.
http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

I pay the J-1 Russian kids (горничные и коридорный) $10 an hour x 40 hours a week at the start of the season. They get tips too, figure $500 a week. I make a bit more.

My wife works in a bookstore (she is a manager) and the wages there almost near federal minimum. Salesgirls' wages are about 7000 RUR (about 240$) a month. Monthly cost of one-room apartment rent in my town is about 12000 RUR a month. And all other prices are equal or even higher than in Moscow.

Originally Posted by chaika

when I lived the hippy life in Haight-Ashbury.

off: Did you see George Harrison there?

Originally Posted by capecoddah

Columbo: 1971-1978, 1989-1998, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1466074/

$1,000.00 in 1971 had about the same buying power as $5,425.85 in 2010. /$1,000.00 in 2010 had about the same buying power as $184.30 in 1971.
$1,000.00 in 1981 had about the same buying power as $2,502.31 in 2010.
$1,000.00 in 1991 had about the same buying power as $1,613.97 in 2010.
http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

I pay the J-1 Russian kids (горничные и коридорный) $10 an hour x 40 hours a week at the start of the season. They get tips too, figure $500 a week. I make a bit more.

So, to sum it up, a lollipop for each of the children, flowers for the wife, a clyster for the grandpa and a hundred is no more?

Originally Posted by alexB

So, to sum it up, a lollipop for each of the children, flowers for the wife, a clyster for the grandpa and a hundred is no more?

hehehehe I had to google clyster

7000 RUR (about 240$) a month.

One of my pet peeves is putting the dollar sign in the wrong place. It makes the writer look to me like a little dim. You put the dollar symbol in front and the cents symbol after, as any literate American knows.

What would you say if we started writing R7000 using our rules of position for the denomination? I would imagine it looks equally strange to y'all.

I never met George Harrison.

I was thinking of opening a separate thread but perhaps this one will suffice for my question. How much do you need to make in Russia per month to buy the minimum food supplies per person ("food basket")? How about public and private transportation and other categories of expenses? This will be different for different cities, so if you know the city, name it too.

Originally Posted by MasterAdmin

I was thinking of opening a separate thread but perhaps this one will suffice for my question. How much do you need to make in Russia per month to buy the minimum food supplies per person ("food basket")? How about public and private transportation and other categories of expenses? This will be different for different cities, so if you know the city, name it too.

A miminal 'food basket' costs from 3,000 RUR to 7,000 RUR a month depending on the region (roughly $120 to $220). This is minimal indeed (accomodation and clothing are not inluded - just food).
To survive you will have to make about 10,000-15,000 ($300 - $500) per family a month. (I'm talking of survival only).
To get by your income should be around 20,000 - 25,000 ($700 - $900).
If you make more than 30,000 a month ($1,000) you're 'above average' (Moscow and St. P. excluded).

So if I understand correctly, most Russians own the appartment they live in. Now, does that mean they bought them and have to pay off a loan? Or is the appartment handed down through generations? And I heard about trading appartments, does that happen a lot?

Originally Posted by devochka

Now, does that mean they bought them and have to pay off a loan?

If you have to pay off a loan (we call that "ипотека" in Russian), then you don't own the flat (yet).

In Soviet times, every person had to be 'registered' somewhere, usually in the place were he lived. When a baby was born, he automatically (or almost automatically, maybe there were some details I don't know) became 'registered' in some flat - usually the flat where his parents lived (and they were registered there too).
Flats were not a private property; they belonged to the State. People who were registered in the flats had only right to live in them (for ever). In one flat, several people can be registered. Each of them had right to use the flat. Older generation dies, younger generation own a flat (together with their children, again).
After the Soviet times, people got right to make the flats their own.
So the answer to your question is that the appartment is handed down through generations.

Originally Posted by devochka

So if I understand correctly, most Russians own the appartment they live in. Now, does that mean they bought them and have to pay off a loan? Or is the appartment handed down through generations? And I heard about trading appartments, does that happen a lot?

Most city-dwellers have been living in stacked flats which were/are the only type of accomodation with modern amenities (running water, sewage). There were/are private houses too.

Those apartments during the Soviet times belonged to the government which rented it at a subsidised price. But there were 'cooperative houses' too. But as fas as I know, those apartments weren't in their dwellers property. They held only a membership in a cooperative which gave them use rights. When such apartments were sold the new owner recieved the membership of the former one.

During the USSR's break-up there was a privatisation which basically meant that registered dwellers could take ownership of the flats they rented. Most of them used the opportunity. The process included signing a mandatory contract with a city of co-ownership of a whole house, so the new owners became partly responsible for keeping the house.

Those 'privatised flat' are being sold now.

To make the situation more clear for American publice some words about the Soviet attitude must be said.

1. The government controlled the economy like an US military base commander controls his base or a CEO controls his firm.
2. Housing of Soviet people was alike to housing families of military people or company employees in a facility situated in a wild area.

Therefore stacked flats, they're economical; wide-area central heating because electrical power-stations need getting rid of hot water. Public transport but not cars.

Originally Posted by chaika

7000 RUR (about 240$) a month.

One of my pet peeves is putting the dollar sign in the wrong place. It makes the writer look to me like a little dim. You put the dollar symbol in front and the cents symbol after, as any literate American knows.

What would you say if we started writing R7000 using our rules of position for the denomination? I would imagine it looks equally strange to y'all.

Thanks for the news. I never paid attention to where the dollar sign was placed. I assumed it was a substitute for the word dollar, to save space and time when writing, therefore it was, I though, logical enough to put it after the number, right where the word might have been. Was it not?

Originally Posted by Ramil

If you make more than 30,000 a month ($1,000) you're 'above average' (Moscow and St. P. excluded).

And what would you say you needed to get by well enough, 'above average', in Moscow?

I think 'the average level' is 40,000 - 45,000 RUR ($1,300 - $1,500) a month. It's stats really, many have salary around 20,000 RUR, but many also earn 80,000 - 100,000 per month.

I wanted to find out how much someone would be making doing what I do, in Moscow. But there is no salary mentioned in the job ads on "Monster" for Russia (just did a super quick search). And those were the jobs that were advertised in English. Do jobs normally advertise the bracket for how much they pay or do you have to actually apply to find out?

They do. There are russian services like www.hh.ru, www.superjob.ru, etc. They usually indicate a salary 'fork'. An IT specialist (not just a guy who can find 'any key' on a keyboard) on the average is offered 50,000 - 70,000 RUR (about $2000) per month. Though it may be as low as 20,000 and as high as 150,000 (but these are the extremes).

EDIT: Thanks Ramil! Interesting...