Thread: What do we earn from selling oil?

Yes - it's ironic that only 20 years after Communism, the problems with capitalism are clearer in Russia than almost anywhere else.

I guess some of the Russian oil money ends up with regular people if the oligarchs and company executives actually spend the money it in Russia... I doubt they pay any taxes though!

And they forgot to add a column for Switzerland in the calculation! A lot of Russian oil money probably finds its way to Swiss bank accounts....

Originally Posted by Hanna

Yes - it's ironic that only 20 years after Communism, the problems with capitalism are clearer in Russia than almost anywhere else.

I truly wonder what is the process that can lead to that kind of conclusion. Would you kindly be able to spell it out for me?
Presently, most of the countries in the world are capitalistic. But does it mean all of them equally prosper? I think some of the other countries are able to demonstrate much more "problems with capitalism" than Russia. Some of the soviet people were in a strange oblivion that as soon as Russia (or any other of the 15 Soviet Republics for that matter) would become capitalistic, everybody will start to prosper economically and culturally. It was the same strange oblivion that conquered the minds of Russian people at the late 19th and the early 20th century and made them change the regime from the absolute monarchy to the constitutional monarchy to the republic to the war communist to the cooperative to the socialist and now to the republic again. The truth is that the regime itself is not solving all the problems. It solves some problems and it creates other problems. It benefits some people and does ill service to others. And the transition is very painful.