Comments by "Nattygsbord" (@nattygsbord) on "Myth: Russian Economic Growth" video.
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- If the russian economy was healthy then it would have large numbers of Fortune 500 companies, as those gigantic companies often is the home of lots of technological know-how that leads to productivity increases in an economy. They also generate much profits. Russia have no such company outside of the fossile fuel sector, or banking related to it. To me this is a sign of failure, to establish any technological leadership in any field.
- If the economy was healthy, then I don't think it would have a 15% interest rate.
- If the economy was healthy, then the currency would be super strong and not lose value against the dollar when the interest rate is 15%.
- If the russian economy was strong would the number of car producer not fall from 60 down to a dozen in just 2 years.
- If the russian economy was healthy, then it would be diversified so it would not be fragile to economic shocks. The russian stock market took the most severe downturn of any economy during the financial crisis which can be interpreted as a symptom of this. Of course was the recovery fast. But the large volatility in itself is not healthy in my opinion, and makes long term planning and growth difficult.
- If the russian economy was healthy, then I do not think that 25% of the population would lack indoor plumbing and men have an average life expectancy than that of Haiti.
- If the Russian economy was healthy then I think that their government would have a lifting of western sanctions the top 1 priority for russia in the grain deal. If their economy is doing so well as they claim themselves, then why care about the sanctions? why not try to get something better out of the deal?
Russia is a country with 144 million people like Mexico that makes the claim of being a super power while only having an economy the size of Spain, or New York City. Income per capita is also pretty low, which matters for a countrys military potential as could allow a substitution for labor with machines/industrial robots/tractors if you got a high average income in your country. And that can allow you to replace more farmers, and industrial workers with mechanization so that more men can be dressed in uniform and sent to the frontline to fight.
Poor economies usually only can mobilize 40-60% of their GDP for war. While richer industrial countries like USA could easily mobilize 80% during WW2, and then did USA not even try their best to go all in. USA did actually begin to demobilize their war economy already in late 1943 before it had fully geared up, because it had realized that the axis had already lost the war. So orders for more weapons was cancelled - like the worlds biggest battleship of the Montana class.
Economic strength do in itself of course not determine the outcome of a war. Sometimes do small economies beat larger ones. But economies with a low GDP per capita is usually more fragile and will break from economic pressures.. as could nicely be seen in World war 1... where the first countries to break apart was the weakest economies. First fell russia in 1917, then fell the Austro-Hungarian empire, and then did Germany fall before the richer Britain did.
Russia is a country with much corruption. It have an ageing population and low birthrates. And having young men fleeing the country. And having young men die before they can make kids and contribute to the economy is a painful loss to russia. Losing 400.000 young men was the best part of the population for russia. Its said that for every 1 dead soldier are there 2 wounded - and one of them is severely wounded. This ratio is a rough estimation that is of course not true for every war. American medical care is certainly better than the russian one, so there are less fatalities and less amounts of smaller wounds that are left without treatment and become more serious problems. In Vietnam did USA have 6 wounded soldiers for every 1 soldier killed. And I think it is highly unlikely russia ever will come close to such a ratio.
So russia have thereby lost 400.000 young men in battle. Another 400.000 have ended up with losing arms, legs and eyes. And another 400.000 got minor injuries and will likely come home after the war with PTSD, alcohol problems and drug use as a coping mechanism as the non-existent state care for their veterans will offer them no help at all. And the result is more crimes, and more relationship problems and men beating their wives.
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Its military was difficult to maintain also during the Cold war, it was always the more technologically backwards opponent that built primitive stuff at a low quality and its equipment is therefore ageing less well than that made in the west. At the end of the Cold war did it become difficult to maintain this collossos. Having an army based on quantity meant that the male workforce was dressed in uniform and therefore became economically unproductive.
Also focusing large parts of the economy around military production made the economy unproductive in improving life in general. And wasting what little of what remained of the economy on Lenin statues, space programs, propaganda, parades and such did not help.. and in the long run would it make the east bloc struggle economically.
This obsession of prestige also harmed its military capacity. The country built useless aircraft carriers for prestige reasons when it should have built small ships for coastal warfare instead.
Now with a declining population and aged equipment will russias military situation only get worse. Fewer men will remain in the workforce if the country decides to keep its old Soviet military model. Reforming the army and go from an army of large numbers to a smaller force of more quality will take much money and investments. And now when russia have lost their best military gear in Ukraine do I think it is fair to say that 20 years of progress in has been wiped out.
Much costs of maintaining old Soviet junk has of course been removed, as tanks have become burning wrecks in Ukraine.
But this military is still too large for russia to afford. And losing a few million men to combat deaths, wounds, braindrain do make the current negative trend even worse for russia.
Its population is ageing and needs upkeep, but the young people are becoming fewer, and the military cannot suck up all of them. And there are no Soviet satellite states that can share the cost of burden like back in the cold war.
The country needs to replace old rusty AK-47 and steel helmets with kevlar helmets, and body armor. And Soviet tanks needs to be scrapped and replaced by T-90 tanks and T-14 Armata. And while SU-35 is a good plane by todays standards, do the future not look good for the russian air force as it still haven't built a single 5th generation fighter jet, while other countries are developing their 6th generation fighter.
This is a bad omen for them. And even after billions of Indian money and years spent are their SU-57 still not finished, and it will probably never be. It cannot compete with F22 or F35 in terms of stealth. Indeed, I would argue that even the old Gripen E is superior to it in most things, including stealth, while also being cheaper.
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