10mo ago

Somehow even worse than construction work in Qatar

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Such is the situation of unemployment here, people are forced to fight for another country and get killed without earning anything????? Two fascists ruined India and Russia
- Not here to defend Russia, but afaik Russian soldiers earn about $2000/mo, which would be good for India if higher rank officers didn't take a huge portion of it to themselves.
  Ukrainian soldiers earn slightly less - about $1600-1800, but I haven't heard about wage theft there.
  
  Alright salary, but you are working 24/7 and you'll have to get back home alive to actually enjoy it.
  
  Do not forget about PTSD if you come back alive
  
  But remember, you'll family will be (maybe) compensated if you die! Join now! Do you want to know more?
  
  Everyone's doing their part. Do you?
  
  Eh, your family will get compensated in the event of your death. It's not really sustainable long term, but Russia has dedicated quite a bit of budget to this. There's still fraud and whatnot, obviously.
  
  I find the idea that the idea that people from another country tricked into conscription would get this benefit. If they got to this point by trickery, what's to stop more trickery?
  
  What a great job opportunity.
  
  The tragic thing is that, for some, it might be. Especially if they're promised that they will serve in a supportive capacity, far away from the frontline. Once you're there, these agreements don't really matter anyway.
  
  The tragic thing is that, for some, it might be.
  To add a context here: since the start of the war, the poverty in Russia dropped from 22% to 9.6%. Of course there are both a factor of manipulation with statistics before the presidential elections and a lag between poverty metrics and inflation, but the number still blows my mind: more than 10 million people were elevated from the poverty.
  But don't get tricked here: people were forced to poverty, and then the government gave away a few coins back.
  
  Interesting conclusion. When I was half way through reading your comment I had just assumed the drop was caused by the poor being the ones sent to the trenches, dying as cannon fodder, and as such reducing the % of poor people across the whole population of Russia
  
  reducing the % of poor people across the whole population of Russia
  No, no, no. Even Ukraine estimates Russian casualties as 400k, and they include severely wounded, pov, and Ukrainians mobilized from occupied territories. Russia has 120-140m people (there's a conspiracy about how many people live there, but sociologists give this range). In the first COVID year the excessive deaths were about 1m. Hence the casualties, cynically speaking, is not that significant.
  
  Makes sense!
  
  To add a context here: since the start of the war, the poverty in Russia dropped from 22% to 9.6%. Of course there are both a factor of manipulation with statistics before the presidential elections and a lag between poverty metrics and inflation, but the number still blows my mind: more than 10 million people were elevated from the poverty.
  I have zero trust in that people were actually elevated from poverty
  
  Why? The Russian government spends enormous sum on soldiers salaries, paying unthinkable $2000/mo.
  What's your point? They don't really pay this much? Or maybe the war has elevated 1m families of soldiers, while it was compensated by other events?
  
  Not only do I not believe that people actually get that sum, but that their material conditions have actually changed for the better. They've made things better for their people during a costly war? Sure they have.
  
  It's less that they've actively made things better for anyone and more that some of their currency is actually circulating to these folks in the first place. Think about the most dirt poor shithole town you can imagine in Bumfuck Kentucky, where there's no running water and barely electricity, and then make the place 30° and covered in ice for 8 months of the year. That's real life for some Russians. There's not any money to even make out there even if the effort was put into it. So being put in the army and paid a soldier's salary, even if half of it is being skimmed, is probably more money than some of these guys have ever seen in one place before. Add to that the ~~requirement~~ ability to travel through civilization, and they're suddenly living a whole new life they've never dreamed of before. I'd call that an increase in quality of life, even if you're only upgrading from Russian Peasant into Russian Soldier that's still a fairly significant boost in some cases. Right up until some Ukrainian high schooler drops a pipe bomb in your lap from a drone to complete his killstreak.
  
  Our HR manager will contact you
  
  In Russia, your family will get a sack of potatoes in the event of your death, certainly not your unpaid salary.
  
  What's disturbing is that those soldier salaries are providing state money and purpose to Russian regions that never saw it before, so there lives are actually getting better thanks to the war. As opposed to the common belief here that Russians are suffering from war related restrictions, the majority is not, only privileged Moscow people may have their life impacted by international sanctions. Source: https://www.newsdirectory3.com/the-majority-of-russians-have-never-had-it-so-good/
  
  While I agree that sanctions affected only the privileged minority as myself, there are subtle signs that Russian society isn't taking the war in a healthy way:
  High reported anxiety with a peak at Sep 2022 https://www.euronews.com/2023/09/26/bursts-of-anxiety-impact-of-ukraine-war-on-russians-laid-bare-in-poll
  Spiked alcohol consumption (+10% a year) https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/01/15/alcohol-dependency-in-russia-increases-for-first-time-in-a-decade-a83718
  An anti-war presidential candidate that had 10% support a month before the election
  
  Seems very far from being enough to make the majority push for a change of regime as we could wish for.
  
  It'll never be enough, until it is 🤷🏼‍♂️
- And Brazil. And the US. And Britain, but that's since a long time. And, well, most of Africa and South/Central America. But that was mostly the US, too. China, of course, but that could be argued was Britain's fault. Indonesia, Israel, most of the Middle East really, Turkmenistan, Hungary, Serbia, Belarus...
  Can we agree that fascism maybe is not a good idea? Or are we gonna have to fight about it again?

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