10mo ago

Somehow even worse than construction work in Qatar

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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.
  
  Where do you get this numbers from?

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