Comments by "Louis Giokas" (@louisgiokas2206) on "Russian Economy - Parts Shortage" video.

I love the example of the combines. My farmer relatives had a friend who had a bunch of combines, all of one manufacturer, scattered about their farm. I think they mostly used them for parts. We used to hunt deer on that farm a lot and often used the old combines for cover. I remember about 30 years ago when my relatives got a "new" (they bought it used with a small number of hours on it) John Deere combine. It harvested at twice the speed of their old one. It also had a laptop computer in the cab and a real-time yield monitor. They could take the data to the local John Deere dealer and get a detailed map of the productivity of their property. This allowed them to apply fertilizer in a more efficient manner. They are truly magnificent machines.
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What you hope for Russia is laudable. I don't see it happening. They had their chance after the Soviet Union fell apart. They chose "stability" over freedom. If you look at the other republics of the Soviet Union that became independent countries, the record is very mixed. The Baltic republics did democratize and integrated with western Europe and became part of the EU. At the other extreme you have Belarus. Then there are places like Georgia which is not fully rid of Russian influence and interference. Even Ukraine was touch and go, and was much like Georgia is now, for a time. The Russian people are basically serfs. Look at the videos that come out of Russian peasants appealing to the czar, I mean Putin, for redress of grievances and protection. It is like something out of the19th century. Read Gogol's book "Dead Souls". It was written in the middle of the19th century. It precisely describes Russia today. That Russia and China became the first major countries to have successful Marxist communist revolutions goes totally against Marx's theory. He assumed that it would be the industrial proletariat that would be the vanguard of the revolution. Workers of the world unite! Remember that slogan. Marx was not talking about the rural peasantry. Even Lenin assumed this would happen after the successful revolution in Russia. Didn't happen. Then Lenin added his twist to Marxism by offering the peasants "free stuff", which he later took away. Mao did the same thing in China. When, not if, The Russian Federation falls apart it is very likely to break into a number of warlord-controlled pieces. I predict that China will do the same, by the way. That is their history.
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