Why are Russians so poor: the opinion of an American who has lived in Russia

Author of the channel “Russian in America” on Yandex.Zen talks about his travels, life in the United States and stories related to Russia.

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I recently talked with my friend, who managed to live for some time in Russia, and asked him one very interesting question: “What do you generally think about Russia and Russians?”

Next - from his face.

I have a very positive attitude towards you, the Russians, but I don’t like your state. Why does a country that has more than 20% of the world's forests, and more oil, gas and minerals than other countries, live so poorly?

It just doesn’t fit in my head: since you extract and sell so much oil, why do you live so poorly?

I will try to explain, in my opinion, why this is so.

It is considered quite normal for you to deceive someone, to “bend” someone - be it your boss, the housing sector or the state. Instead of paying honestly for utilities (even though they are much cheaper here than in America), some of you prefer to install some kind of device that allows you to slow down the rotation of the meter, and so on.

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The worst thing is that you treat this normally and even laugh at it, they say, the main thing is to have time to remove the device until you come from the office and see it.

In general, it is common for you to break the rules. You even get a kick out of it, like “ha ha, look how cool I am, I deceived the state and paid less than necessary.”

In the West, this is not accepted: rules are rules, and they must be respected.

Perhaps these are echoes of the USSR, but everywhere you are equated with each other, they say, be like everyone else. At school, if you stand out, teachers quench you: where are you in a hurry, be like everyone else!

You need to dress like everyone else, why stand out so that they envy you?

Geniuses are not allowed to develop, they propose something, invent something, but zero attention is paid to them: “nobody needs it.” But America needs it - and we take the geniuses for ourselves.

Many of your gifted children, together with their parents, are leaving for us, to America, because we encourage such geniuses and in every way we want them to help improve our state, and provide them with opportunities for this.

The main reason why Russians live so poorly is their terrible patience. And if someone starts going on strike and says that he doesn’t want to live like this, no one really supports him, and the police quickly take the rebel away, because the system doesn’t need him.

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It is interesting that many discuss how poorly they live in the country, sitting in their kitchen, and when it comes to business, they do not express their position in any way.

As one Russian acquaintance told me: “It’s as if we are all standing up to our necks in shit, and if someone rebels, he starts to stir it all up, and everyone tells him: “Quiet - don’t rock the boat, don’t drive the wave!”

Original column published on the blog. “Russian in America” on Yandex.Zen

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