An old comic that feels oh so relevant in this tumultuous election year.
Source: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/an-important-distinction
this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2024
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are their upsides to living in russia? Seems like right now wouldn't be a particularly good time. Really the only thing i can think of off the top of my head is piracy, and maybe some more lax internet rules. But that's about it.
Your post pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter in completion.
Yes, piracy and lackluster Internet regulation is one particularly good thing.
Also, costs are generally low, which greatly offsets the lower revenue. Russia is the fourth economy by GDP by purchasing power parity, so it's not to be underestimated.
Fuel, food, electricity and water, and a lot of other stuff is WAY cheaper than in Europe. Some Europeans living near the border drive to Russia to this day to get some goods for cheap and also fuel their cars.
Russia has lush forests, a lot of water, and amazing nature. It does have polluted cities, but for the most of it, air quality is high.
Most people here have their own countryside summer home, which serves as a wonderful retreat.
Social security is not amazing, but good enough; also, healthcare is greatly improving in the last years, despite some of the sanctions (generally though, medical goods are allowed to enter Russia from everywhere)
On the flip side, the country is obviously ruled by a bloodthirsty maniac that crushes descent, sanctions lead to unavailability of many products and services, I cannot go to Finland to see my brother, and economy is screeching under the load of a war machine that kills our fellows (and Ukrainians were always seen from Russia as rogue, but beloved members of the Eastern Slavic family) for no valid reason.
Also, the economic consequences of war lead to all sorts of weird consequences; for example, high key interest rate meant to keep money inside results to completely crazy loan conditions, like mortgages with 19% APR - you are literally supposed to pay one fifth of a price for an accommodation AS INTEREST EVERY YEAR. Before war, it was in the 5-7% range. As such, house owning is not an option at all. Also, markets are highly volatile, and it is hard to save any money.
huh, interesting, rather informative. Appreciate the insight.
I suppose if you're somehow making money from western economies it's probably a pretty good gig. Are the domestic wages any decent? I've heard russia has issues with braindrain, for more educated fields, since pay and living standards are often higher outside of russia. Though i've never looked into it.
It'll be interesting to see what happens economically as the war continues, or as it ends.
Yes, it is profitable to work in Western economies, but current political situation often makes it outright impossible, and back in the days when it was possible it wasn't super common - mostly due to language barrier (most Russians are not fluent in any foreign language, including English) and the culture that pressures people to stay in. Phrases like "you're good where you're born" are common sayings here.
High-profile specialists, though, are the first to leave for sure, in search of higher wages, a safer/better place to be, etc. etc.
Also now that a lot of male population was under the threat of mobilization, a lot of young people have fled the country to where they could, taking their families with them.
There was a thing with freelance work on international platforms that brought good money without having to leave the country, but soon after freelance economy started truly booming, Russia started the war which ended up in main payment channels being closed - and barely anyone outside IT specialists offers serious freelance work paid in crypto or by other means.
what about online? Say game dev or something. I believe tarkov is russian based no? Though they have an HQ in the UK i think, for monetary purposes.
yeah, that sounds about right.
Yeah, put "online" in the basket of freelance work and expand it to company level, and you'd be about right.
Quite a few games are indeed Russian - Escape from Tarkov, Atomic Heart, Crossout are examples off the top of my head that were international bangers. But they all had to build sophisticated systems to let the money flow, and often had to make separate affiliates. This does hurt game devs a lot in the process, and make a lot of groups NOT go into those waters.
yeah that sounds about right, thanks for the input.