Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "Why Is Russia Not Rich?" video.

@HistoryScope Cool video all round. I didn't need to really watch this. I already new the answer to what's happened since the fall of the Soviet System BUT this is a good video because it fills in a lot of the historical "how did it get here" background which I hadn't heard. The version I have heard of what happened since the fall of the Soviet system which is very similar to yours and the details sort of overlap goes like this. In the 1990s the Russians unfortunately listened to American Economists like Jeffery Sachs. These were the clowns who told the Russians to sell or auction off all the Soviet State assets. It was the same ideology that started with Reagan and Thatcher in the 1970s driven by the Chicago School economists lead by Milton "Greed is Good" Freidman. I have been trying to work this stuff out for a couple of years now, because it affects my country Australia like it does so many. Mark Blyth (Brown U.) hosts the Rhodes Centre Podcast where he mostly talks to people who've written books on economics, political-economy and history. A couple of them have been highly critical of people like Jeffery Sachs for what they have done around the world and then blamed the people in those nations for the disasters that happened. AND YES they have blamed the Russians for the mess they helped create. Basically the American economists tried to neo-liberalise Russia without understanding if the Russian people were ready. Its similar to the stupidity of ramming democracy down the throats of people in nations with none of the institutions needed in place to manage it like happened in Iraq and Afghanistan. The giant problem with trying to flip Russia into a capitalist free market society in such a short time was that the only Russians with any real experience in capitalist systems were the KGB officers who'd served outside Russia. So why should anyone be surprised that it was Ex-KGB people who knew what to do and when to do it and how its turned out.
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@blacklion8208 Sorry buddy but you are ONLY HALF RIGHT. You are spot on that the Russians have a problem with their own mentality, but as many others have explained that's come from generations learning to survive Russian Winters. That's forced them to always put the group first and individuals second. Its sort of why it was easy for them to adopt Marxism. America from its foundation put the individual first and the group second. Its right there in the preamble and the Bill of Rights and its created 2 very similar groups American Liberals and America Libertarians. Go and watch John Mearsheimer if you want both explained. FIRST - I do not like John Mearsheimer. In one respect he's just another University of Chicago goon who promotes a pretty ugly ideology called "Offensive Realism." Its the complicated way of describing American Libertarians who believe that all people are selfish and if you don't allow them what they want then they will take it anyway. That's the Milton Friedman "Greed is Good" crowd. On the other hand Mearsheimer's critique of American Liberals (the other side of American ideology) is better than anyone else on the planet. Mearsheimer points out and this is the part where you are HALF WRONG its hardwired into American Liberals that any country NOT having (in their view) a functioning liberal democracy then they must go in there and re-wire that country into a liberal democracy. Those are the idiots who thought they could convert Afghanistan and Iraq into liberal democracies overnight. American Liberals were also the people (including many economists) who went into the post-Soviet Eastern Block and proceeded to re-wire them. In some cases its helped and in others its been disastrous. For Russia its been disastrous as they convinced the Russians to privatise everything at a time when they were NOT READY for it. That allowed those who understood Capitalism (like the KGB officers who served in Western Countries) to take advantage. American Libertarians are the ones who SNEAK into countries find the most narcissistic mongrel they can to take over (by force if necessary) so that they can plunder that nations resources. Those are the people who went into countries like Chile and Iran (before the Revolution) and support various dictators. Sorry buddy but BOTH SIDES of America politics can't keep their noses out of other countries. Its just that 1 of those sides is misguided and the other are ruthless narcissists.
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Didn't need to really watch this. I already new the answer to what's happened since the fall of the Soviet System BUT this is a good video because it fills in a lot of the historical "how did it get here" background which I hadn't heard. The version I have heard of what happened since the fall of the Soviet system goes like this. In the 1990s the Russians unfortunately listened to American Economists like Jeffery Sachs. These were the clowns who told the Russians to sell or auction off all the Soviet State assets. It was the same ideology that started with Reagan and Thatcher in the 1970s driven by the Chicago School economists lead by Milton "Greed is Good" Freidman. I have been trying to work this stuff out for a couple of years now, because it affects my country Australia like it does so many. Mark Blyth (Brown U.) hosts the Rhodes Centre Podcast where he mostly talks to people who've written books on economics, political-economy and history. A couple of them have been highly critical of people like Jeffery Sachs for what they have done around the world and then blamed the people in those nations for the disasters that happened. AND YES they have blamed the Russians for the mess they helped create. Basically they tried to neo-liberalise Russia without understanding the Russian people or if they were ready. Its similar to the stupidity of ramming democracy down the throats of people in nations with none of the institutions needed in place to manage it. The giant problem with trying to flip Russia into a capitalist free market society in such a short time was that the only Russians with any real experience in capitalist systems were the KGB officers who'd served outside Russia. So why should anyone be surprised that it was Ex-KGB people who knew what to do and when to do it and how its turned out.
1