Last week, I wrote about the 10 ways in which life in Russia is better than America.
Now it’s time for Uncle Sam to have his due.
Typical Moscow sleeper suburb.
Higher Living Standards
Although Russian prices are 2x cheaper than America’s, the blunt fact is that wages are also 4x-5x lower.
Consequently, the standard of living in the US relative to Russia is at least twice higher.
This gap widens to almost an order of magnitude so far as professionals in the state sphere, such as doctors and researchers, are concerned. Despite some lingering but much diminished prestige associated to their work from the Soviet era, most of them can barely be considered middle-class in economic terms, even by Russian standards.
The typical urban Russian lives in gray, concrete commieblocks that are comparable to American public housing in quality. The quality of construction is low, internal planning is haphazardous, and contrary to rumors, my inquiries indicates that the presence of nuclear shelters are very much the exception, not the rule. So they don’t even have survivability in the case of nuclear war going for them. At just 25 sqm a person, the average Russian has barely any more living space than the average denizen of overcrowded Japan, and three times less than the average American.
Although Russia has converged with First World levels on indicators such as cell phone ownership and Internet penetration, this is not the case with truly expensive durables. The US leaves Russia in the dust with respect to car ownership, with 797/1,000 cars per person to Russia’s 293/1,000; nor can this difference be ascribed to the centrality of automotive culture in the US, since Russia lags typical European levels of 500-600/1,000 cars per person as well.
Although there’s more far more debt in the US, that also reflects the reality that Americans have the option of taking out debt thanks to a much better-developed credit system. This enables them to take out mortgages to buy homes and raise families in them, while paying off the debt and assuming full ownership by retirement. There are mortgages in Russia as well, but interest rates tend to be prohibitively high, especially for young families with low incomes. Popular understanding of credit and home economics seems low. When I got my credit card here from state-owned banking giant Sberbank, it was marketed to me as a way to get expensive goods during the New Year holidays, whereas in the United States the talking points would be about building up a credit rating.
This reflects the fact that Russians don’t understand personal finance and have low future time orientation relative to the Anglo/Protestant world. One American who works in a Russian media organization says that bonuses are paid out to staff to coincide with the start of the holiday season, the assumption being that they would have otherwise spent it and have no money to go to the Crimea or Egypt. As an American who understands the concept of saving up, he had to push through a special exception for himself with the accounting department.
Washington, D.C. in 2013. Some crazed Islamist ranting in front of the White House, without getting arrested. Is there any greater and more majestic symbol of the strength of American civilization?
Freedom of Speech
Yes, you can be ostracized. Yes, you can be fired from your job. Yes, this might no longer be the case in another decade or two, if the SJWs have their way.
But at the end of the day you will not go to jail on trumped up charges of hate speech.
In this sense, America’s “Society 282” is still far preferable to Russia’s “Article 282.”
Guns
American gun rights are enshrined in the Second Amendment and are by far the strongest of any major country in the world.
In Russia you need to fill out reams of forms just to get a hunting shotgun. All handguns, magazines with a capacity of more than ten rounds, fully automatic weapons, and open carry are illegal.
Bureaucracy
The Russian bureaucracy is a lot better than it used to be, especially in the “My Documents” centers that have proliferated in recent years as part of a government initiative to make bureaucratic services more transparent and accessible to citizens. In comparison to 2007, there are fewer papers to fill out, many more tasks can be done online, and staff are more courteous. This is reflected in Russia moving from around 120th in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings a decade ago, to 35th as of 2017.
Which still makes it a horrendous nightmare by Anglo standards.
Far fewer tasks and operations need to be confirmed with the bureaucracy in the first place, and those that do – with the notable exception of the DMV – tend to go far more smoothly.
Volokolamsk Great Patriotic War memorial, summer 2017.
More Respect for Public Spaces
Outside of central Moscow, which is a SWPL paradise that wouldn’t look out of place in central Europe, public spaces tend to be unkempt, if not entirely derelict.
Although it is tempting to blame this on a shortage of funds, there’s no doubt that apathy and outright corruption play a large part in this. This summer, I went to Volokolamsk, a small town 120 km from Moscow, where I have a few relatives. There used to be a German tank, displayed as a war trophy on a pedestal, on the road into Volokolamsk. But now it was absent. According to our taxi driver, the previous United Russia mayor had sent it to Germany for maintenance – why would a hunk of 75 year old metal need maintenance? – but it later emerged that he had sold it to a German collector and pocketed the proceeds. In the ensuing scandal, he was removed, and United Russia lost the next mayoral elections to the Communist candidate. Regardless, most of the town’s historic churches remain in a dilapidated condition, and the local World War II memorial (see photo above) appears to be in a worse state than during the depressed 1990’s.
Ultimately, this is a reflection of the wider society. There is extremely little respect for the “commonweal” as it is understood in the Anglosphere – not just amongst the elites, but amongst ordinary Russians too. People throw cigarette butts from balconies onto the sidewalk, instead of getting an ashtray. Picnickers treat the reeds at the edge of the lake in a park as a garbage bin.
If Russians do not even respect themselves, why should their rulers?
Incidence of bribery in Europe, GCB 2017.
Bribery and Theft
There isn’t a lot of everyday bribery. Certainly not for routine bureaucratic services, as was not uncommon in the 1990s.
That said, there’s still an order of magnitude more corruption going on than in core Europe. Though I have personally yet to encounter a request for a bribe, I do know of a large-scale case of bribery that involves a circle of lawyers, prosecutors, and judges just a couple of degrees of separation from myself. I find it difficult to imagine that something like this is even possible in the United States in anything but singular cases.
According to acquaintances, the incidence of internal theft within corporations – especially the state owned hydrocarbons giants – is far more prevalent than in the West.
There are also far more of all kinds of scams and petty commercial tricks. For instance, a couple of months ago, a salesperson came knocking to my flat, offering to replace the windows at subsidized rates thanks to a local government initiative – but we should hurry up, because the program is on a “first come, first served” basis. A 5 minute Internet investigation made it clear that program was entirely fictive, and the company in question has endless complaints against it for false marketing and charging 50% more than its competitors (presumably, its lying salespeople have to be paid). But I can imagine them raking in profits from Internet-illiterate elderly people.
Unfortunately, this is not just a few bad apples, but reflective of general social phenomena. For instance, many foreigners have observed how easy it is to return products in the United States within the first 6 months, year, or even two years. Many ex-USSR immigrants regularly exploit these provisions, buying some expensive coffee machine only to decide they’re not that satisfied with it after 11 months and getting their money back, only to then repeat the process. This is something I have observed first hand on several occasions, and the culprit was never an indigenous American.
This illustrates why Russians can’t have nice things in Russia. Here, the typical window for returning products is two weeks to a month.
Seattle.
Amazon Prime
The closest Russia has to Amazon Prime is Ozon.ru, though it’s far less than comprehensive in scope, and other online shops tend to have better prices for specific categories of products (e.g. pleer for electronics, El Dorado for home repair equipment, etc).
I suppose there are advantages to a lack of monopolist, but it does make things a bit more complex for people who had settled into the one click order & delivery pattern fostered by Amazon.
A more specific feature of the delivery experience in Russia is that packages are never left at the door – you either have to pick it up in person, or answer the door yourself. Why? Because someone will inevitably steal it, as in Black (but not Latino) areas of American cities.
Fortunately there are now more and more equivalents of Amazon Lockers for those Russians who don’t partake of the NEET lyfe and can’t hang around their home all day waiting for a delivery.
My favorite restaurant in Berkeley.
Minor Conveniences
Just as the Anglos are no good for pickles, so Russia is the bane of the chillihead.
There are approximately four shops selling a full variety of Indian spices (they are appropriately named “Indian Spices“) in Moscow. They also have one shop in Saint Petersburg. Otherwise, that’s it. Similar situation with Indian restaurants. There are a couple of good ones in Moscow, and one good one in Saint-Petersburg (by “good” I mean acceptable by London or SF Bay Area standards).
Tropical Hyperborea can’t immanentize fast enough!
Russian wines have been improving rapidly, as tastes change from Soviet vodka-swilling towards greater refinement. Even so, even Moscow is very far from France or California. To say nothing of the provinces.
One other small thing that annoys me is the near complete absence of lined/college-ruled paper. The only ones I have been able to find were German imports.
Globally Dominant Culture
The United States is at the center of global science and culture.
It publishes the most scientific papers, hosts the most famous brands, and incubates the most hi-tech startups. Everybody has heard of 23andme, nobody has heard of Genotek.
Around 95% of scientific publishing takes place in English – if a paper doesn’t have an English version, at this point in history, it might as well not exist.
Everybody watches American films, follows American shows, and plays American video games.
With the small exception of literature, where it continues to produce a modest amount of high quality original content, Russian culture is now but a footnote to global American culture.
For all intents and purposes, the United States has won a global Cultural Victory, and its culture is dominant even within Russia.
Historically, the best of the best traditionally flocked to the imperial metropolis – two millennia ago, it was Rome; now, it is Boswash and Silicon Valley.
There are real benefits to be derived from being located at the global center of cultural and scientific dynamism, from having early access to the latest electronic toys and medical treatments (FDA obliging) to rubbing shoulders with highly accomplished people and thereby raising your own chances of success.
There is only a faint echo of this in Moscow, while the rest of Russia might as well be a desert.
Addendum
If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy my comprehensive comparison of life in Russia, America and the United Kingdom that I wrote in 2011: http://akarlin.com/tag/national-comparisons/ .
One important point of comparison that you should have mentioned in either this post or in the previous post, one that has great impact on almost all other spheres of modern life, is of course the discrepancy in the number of high quality roads that dominate in the U.S., and that are sorely lacking in Russia. This very feature should be considered as the calling card of any truly highly civilized country.
In Europe deliverymen don’t just drop boxes in front of your house as well. I actually prefer it this way. In America it horrified me when the mailman just abandoned my really expensive delivery at my front door, just to sit there open to the world (and the weather).
In the Netherlands we have an option to pick it up at the nearest post office usually.
Roads in remote places are worse. Airports are of similar quality (major ones in Moscow are better than the ones in the US). Railways in Russia beat American ones hands down. Public transportation in America is complete crap. So I don’t know, my personal experience (as someone who does not enjoy ‘roadtripping’) Russia is better in this respect.
In Hungary, they usually don’t (though depending on the place etc.), but in some other countries like Switzerland or Germany they often do. (Maybe it’s changing?)
Is there any way to quantify that? I’ve been pestered by salesmen who tried to scam me as well (though that happened only once in more than ten years, so far also no burglaries, though acquaintances haven’t been that lucky), seems difficult to generalize from such a single case.
Haven’t experienced it myself.
So far, it was either me, a family member, a neighbor or the nearest post received the stuff delivered to me.
Where I live (middle classs suburb of a moderately big and fairly “diverse” West German society) postmen usually try to hand over packages etc. to neighbours and leave a note informing you about that. Has occasionally happened though that they put it under the stairs or some other semi-hidden place, don’t know if that’s against their instructions though.
Two notes of dissent. Freedom of speech and global culture. On freedom of speech, Russia may have more draconian laws but America’s freedom of speech, especially on issues such as white nationalism is de facto just as bad.
One point Mike Enoch makes, successfully I think, is that America’s strong laws on freedom of speech derived from a culture of freedom, which extended to freedom of speech and that is now being lost. This is manifested not in new laws but through another route. Put simply, American corporations – including Silicon Valley ones – have essentially entered into a sort of quasi-PPP(public-private partnership) on policing thought and speech. So the USG gets to wash its hands but it has in effect delegated the repression to private entities such as Google who then crack down on dissent.
Libertarians will say “hey, corporations have a right to which opinions they want to host” but that is a form of autism, because it ignores that Google is a virtual monopoly on search for instance, and they actively manipulate what you find through searching (same is true on Youtube recommendations and the like). And that’s the mild stuff. Account shutdowns are routine. People getting fired is routine. Therefore, while America’s on-the-books laws are better, the ground-reality of freedom of speech is but a faint shadow of what it was. That lunatic you showed in the picture is no threat to the system, he’s just a yelling madman. How the USG responds, through its delegated proxies in the private sector, to a more systematic/sustained challenge is more revealing and it’s all repression. People can and often do lose their jobs, we saw this in the aftermath of Charlottesville. Again, it’s public pressure on private businesses but the climate of fear and repression is the same. Laws in this context is of secondary importance.
As for ‘global culture’, this is hard to justify, too. Americans are no longer a tight-knit people, bound together by a common ethos, history or frankly future. They are consumers in a giant shopping mall. A wealthy shopping mall, but a shopping mall nonetheless. The price for influence is that your culture becomes watered-down and commoditised, to use an expression favoured by many Marxists. Thus, being ‘in the center’ doesn’t have as many benefits because large swaths of Americans have little in common with each other. In order to reach the many, you must spread yourself thin and shallow.
Secondly, and on the same subject, I find most American ‘culture’ to be gross and vulgar, and frankly negrified. Most American pop culture is gansta rap and the like. Though I’ve heard that hip-hop is big in Russia, but it’s not a huge thing in Poland (though there are wannabe’s). Furthermore, even in traditionally US-compliant nations like Germany, TV shows such as ‘Empire'(somekind of hip-hop meets godfather fantasy) flopped by huge margins. So even in countries which are desperate to become like the US, there is often a general dislike of this type of Africanised content.
As for high culture, Russian selection is far better for far lower cost. This is also something which was pointed out to you in the last thread which you forgot to include in one of the advantages of Russia. Most high culture in the US is imported from Europe, plays, theater, musicals, ballets and so on. The Americans may be better at tech, but they are lagging in (high) culture. In some ways, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
I don’t live in Russia or America, but for me of the two America is by far the scarier place, by scary I mean the sheer cult levels of zealotry the general population adopts. Take the banning of alcohol for example, I doubt even Stalin could have gotten away with such a drastic measure, but in the supposed land of the free this is exactly what they did. Or how about the sheer speed on how they went from being Christian to hounding people that don’t want to serve homosexuals, America was certainly not the first country to push gay politics, but they are much scarier how they push their politics.
As for the freedom of speech, it looks inevitable that they will ban things allowed now with future laws, but even now if one says anything on the growing list of forbidden topics your life is destroyed. I don’t know what the Russian law is if you for example if you say n*gger on Facebook, but in America it means your life is pretty much destroyed, so you will not go to jail (what is the jail sentence for this in Russia?), but what does it matter if you are banished from doing anything in society?
Finally, the whole standard of living thing, you should clearly know that if you hang out at sites such as Unz.com, places like Detroit or the massive changes in states like California are the future for all of America. You might try isolate yourself as best you can, but the ring of third worldom (boosted by the American zealotry), that surrounds places like Silicon Valley, will eventually overwhelm the O ring you mentioned that sustains it.
Reading this I have to also ask what others have already done here, are you black pilled? Do you want to become American?
Is Belarus a “truly highly civilized country”?
While I can’t say to have tried the roads there myself, I know someone who did and he was amazed by how good they were and how noticeable was the transition when you crossed the border to Russia or Ukraine.
Regarding on of the issues Anatoly does raise, he also commented about how well public spaces were maintained and how clean everything was (at least in Minsk).
A good movie is also part of high culture, and in this area the Americans beat everyone. In literature, the achievements of Americans, huge, very huge.
Is that really still true today?
And while I think much of US popular culture is pretty horrible, I think AK is right, there really is a problem here, European countries produce nothing that is even remotely competitive with US mass culture. Europe feels old, exhausted and culturally stagnant today, nothing new is produced, and we’re losing sight of our own cultural traditions (e.g. just see the decline of Latin in European school systems). And all the while Americanization relentlessly continues, with the most pernicious notions of US public discourse like “white privilege” now turning up in Europe as well and the US’s racial politics seen as a model to be imitated by us (instead of a cautionary tale what not to do).
EDIT: Oops, I made a mistake, that was meant as a reply to “PolishPerspective”, sorry.
Russia/USSR were dry by law from 1914-25.
None (see #2).
Last that I checked, Belarus was not Russia. Also, you could fit approximately 75 Belaruses inside of Russia, making it much easier to pave with decent roads. Almost 70% of commercial freight in the US is dominated by the trucking industry – with the advent of semis running strictly on electrical power, I can only see this trend increasing into the future. And what about Russia?
Roads are much better than they were 10-20 years ago, in my experience. That said, for now I can only speak for Moscow and Moscow oblast.
It’s not something that (yet) affects me personally since I don’t have a car, and don’t plan on getting one anytime soon.
I found US roads to be okay, but very much subpar to German and French ones. Their main advantage (and it’s a cardinal one) is the frequency of rest stops, most of which work 24/7.
Mainly thanks to Russian airports being newer – the old Russian airports (if Sheremetyevo are anything to go by) are nothing to write home about.
I don’t think Russian railways are superior to American ones. They are not any newer or faster (apart from a few high speed routes, mainly to SPB). Main advantage is that they are massively cheaper. However, train stop facilities leave much to be desired, especially outside the major cities.
Public transportation is indeed generally better in Russia, though with the advent of Uber-Lyft/Yandex Taxi, my impression is that international differences on this score are getting papered over in general.
I’m curious what you think are some good American movies and books.
Not sure, but it’s unlikely that they are comparable, due to the much lower culture of honesty in Russia relative to Hajnal Europe (as can be proxied by things such as bribery incidence, etc.).
Only 9% of Russians expect a stranger to return their lost wallet, versus typical figures of ~30% for core Europe: http://news.gallup.com/poll/102346/many-world-citizens-trust-neighbors-more-than-police.aspx
Article 282 vs. Society 282. Pick your poison, I guess.
A word about culture.
At this time in my life, I divide my time between scientific work and playing with children, so I am most familiar with Anglo-Saxon and Russian children’s books, magazines, and animated films. While there is a venerable and still vigorous tradition of children’s literature in English, Russia too has plenty to be proud of in this respect. On the other hand, Russian children’s magazines and short animated films far outshine anything that I’ve seen from the Anglosphere. (Unfortunately Russia doesn’t have the budget for making multiple feature animated films each year.)
I believe this is a very positive sign about the trajectory of Russian culture.
This doesn’t seem right – contrary to popular stereotypes, freight in Europe is much more automotive than in America: http://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=11847
Basically, all the US railways continue to function, but have virtually all been converted to freight transport, whereas in Europe and Russia they continue to serve dual passenger and freight roles.
Figures for Russia: http://www.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_main/rosstat/ru/statistics/enterprise/transport/
7,695 million tons transported in 2016, of which 1,325 by rail (17%) and 5,138 by road (67%).
I.e., Russia has a European profile in this respect.
On the topic of mass pop culture, I am curious how popular Star Wars is in places like Germany, Poland or Russia? In Germany, I would guess that they simply emulate everything that comes out of America. In Poland or Russia, since the new Star War is now explicit SJW propaganda and openly anti white (the makers of the movie are admitting this), is the average proto SJW there still going to accept this pop culture product even if it is very clear now that white organizations are being demonized as villains and the diverse as heroes?
My estimate is that showings of Star Wars 8 were approximately three times as frequent as that of Legend of Kolovrat – at least that was the case in the cinema I visited to watch the latter.
It’s certainly popular (I’ve played Star wars-themed video games myself and enjoyed them, even though I regard the Star wars universe as pretty silly on the whole), but my impression is it’s nothing like in the US…there seems to be a near-religious worship of those stupid movies in the US (or at least among a certain generation of Americans) that probably isn’t equalled anywhere else imo, e.g. you have people as different as the cretinous Rod Dreher over at The American conservative (regarding Star Wars VII two years ago) and Richard Spencer talking about those movies as if they should be taken seriously. Can’t really imagine that with journalists or political activists in Germany.
Star wars VIII started in German cinemas on December 14, over the 1st weekend apparently 1,6 million people saw it (so obviously a lot), can’t find any more recent data right now.
In St. Petersburg and the surrounding area is the same.
I live in a town in the forest – something like Gravity Falls (but alas, without the monsters). In the photo the houses in the background – this is my town
http://imagesait.ru/photos/aHR0cDovL3MtcGIuaW4vaW1hZ2VzL3N0b3JpZXMvcmVsYXgvYXR0cmFjdGlvbi9zY2h1Y2g1LmpwZw==/shchuche-ozero-spb.jpg
But i go to work in the center of St. Petersburg. The car I don’t need: 40 minute train, and I’m in the center of St. Petersburg.
Since most here are talking about mass pop culture, then one should take them seriously to a degree. You may not like it, but what Star Wars does has as much impact on the world as a Papal encyclical would have had in the middle ages, this means that what it preaches should be treated as a serious matter even if you are not a true believer or even opposed to it.
I used numbers from a Wikipedia article that relied on statistics from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (2002).If anything, the stats should be even higher now, 15 years later with the economy humming at almost record highs. Besides commerce, good roads help to bind a country together in many other ways too, travel by road is ubiquitous here in the states (as you probably know). Just for comparison, I had my own family, hand me down, Ford Falcon as a 16 year old boy. In my twenties, I purchased my first new car a Chevy Nova, with some family assistance. By the time I was in my 30’s, a new car was something I could readily afford, by taking out a loan from my local Credit Union. I’m assuming that you’re somewhere in your 30’s, quite intelligent with marketable skills and still find it difficult to buy and maintain your own car? How about the other mass of Russian citizenry who don’t command the skills and knowledge that you possess (just trying to point out some differences)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trucking_industry_in_the_United_States
Of course one should take them seriously in the sense that they have mass appeal, and are now used for transporting messages I disapprove of (the newest movie does indeed seem to be anti-white, like so much else in US popular culture nowadays). But all those discussions about mythology, narrative concepts etc. in Star wars are just silly. Even the original movies were dumb kids’ stuff.
Yes, even though I like trains (favorite mode of transport), I agree that the American arrangement – cars for passengers, rail for freight – is superior to the European one (the inverse).
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The point is that is that I don’t need one. We have a dacha 120 km from Moscow, but it’s reachable by train or bus + Yandex Taxi. I visit it maybe twice a year. Why do I need a car for this?
Did you read this post?: http://www.unz.com/akarlin/10-ways-usa-better-than-russia/#p_1_8:1-75
A very short list
Movies:
“Gone with the wind”, “Cabaret”, “Watchmen”, “Fight club”. Perhaps “the Lord of the rings”. The TV Series “Dr. House”.
Books:
“The Chronicles of Amber” (The Corwin cycle), “Dying of the Light” (this is the story of George Martin: I would write here A Song of Ice and Fire, if George stopped at the third volume), “Dandelion Wine”, the short stories of Robert Sheckley.
I can add that American literature was read and appreciated by Alexander Pushkin – he even wrote a remake of a story by Washington Irving.
I enjoy train travel as well. If I ever decide to semi-retire to Ukraine (a lot depends on the behavior of the Russian nationalist hordes to the north), perhaps train/bus travel will suffice. Although several members of my family do own and travel by car?…
It’s really none of my business, but have you been able to land a steady gig in Russia yet? With your background, I’d think that several doors would be open for you? Journalism, computer science, even government work (trade/teaching/commerce)? If somebody of your caliber is having a hard time of it (finding a job), this speaks volumes about the state of affairs in Russia.
I need to question how much one can consider Lord of the Rings an American movie? It is based on a non American book and directed by a non American, the funding might be American, but other than that there was no overt insertion of US pop culture into the movie, which is probably why it was such a good movie.
I also need to add the fact that when Tolkien was writing, WW2 was happening, I read that he wanted to avoid blending those current affairs into his stories. Now compare this to the usual Hollywood movie that needs to insert every latest political drama into their preachy movies, which does make them become dated very fast.
Oh, and I’d add that you’d be a perfect researcher too. We hear so much about Russian ‘grant eaters’ taking their ques from Western sponsors. But what about Russian grants to perform research to substantiate or explore areas of your competency? With the Russian economy starting to turn the corner, the ‘grant eater’ profession must be on the up?
In my mind this is US movie.
In Russian art, too, can find similar phenomena: for example, the “Bayadere” ballet by the French choreographer and a German composer, based on ancient Indian dramaturgy. But this ballet is considered the jewel of Russian culture.
Polish Perspective above is absolutely correct re the USA –
In the USA people often have their speech banned, but the method is a ‘gag order’ by bribe-taking judges, and the jailing is thus for ‘contempt of court’ without what you think of as a trial or evidence or a ‘conviction’ … people have been held like that for 14 years
There are a lot of ‘sideways’ attacks in the US, they add a layer of complexity to hide the repression … they pick up a dissident and claim they found ‘100 gigabytes of child porn’ on his computer, which the gov themselves planted, so the conviction seems ‘unconnected’ to the politics … and the judges lock up the victim’s bank accounts on day 1 to prevent expert help, plus issue an immediate ‘gag order’ preventing the victim from publicising what is happening, US judges call people up on the phone and tell them they are going to jail if they say anything, the victim is fooked & helpless
USA lawyers are instantly disbarred, jailed as well sometimes, if they say anything in court papers or to the media about the judge corruption, ‘contempt of court’ again, so even with money the US lawyers won’t really fight for the victim, and typically sell people out to the more well-connected party
One of the fascinating things about US media control, is that even a person like Anatoly Karlin who lived there a good while, was unaware of the pervasive USA bribery and judicial corruption culture … Until they bump into the US legal corruption in a personal way, most US residents think their legal system is like in the Hollywood movies
But actually the US courts have a higher conviction rate than Hitler’s 3rd Reich, there is almost never a ‘jury trial’ for small fry. The US-gov-supplied ‘lawyer’ tells the black kid or Mexican or poor white dude or dissident, ‘Look here’s the deal, you take a plea, you’re in jail for 3 years, you go to trial, it’s 25 years, whaddaya wanna do?’ The guy takes the plea and the sentence is 10 years ‘But we had a deal’ ‘Not by me’ says the judge.
And that’s when people find out that the totally corrupt ACLU – American Civil Liberties Union, is not interested in legal system victims, they’re too ‘busy’ with getting trans-genders into ladies’ rooms, supporting elite paedophiles and the ‘Man-Boy Love Association’ … the victim is slandered because ‘even the ACLU wouldn’t help him’
In Russia Anatoly Karlin saw
But that is business as usual in the USA … you know this if you know people in the increasingly-shrinking area of USA small business, people who’ve been mauled in US divorce case extortions, US people who’ve had their assets seized via some bribed judge, the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent amongst the USA’s 2.3 million prisoners, 25% of all the prisoners of the world … all those people know … but Google is blocking their stories very nicely
Although in all fairness, per capita, Russia is nearly as big a jailer of its own citizens as the USA, they both jail about 1 out of every 150 people (vs 1 out of 1000 in Western Europe)
But try to talk about a specific judge bribery case in the USA, the lawyers hit you with papers, instant ‘gag order’ by the bribed judge, plus ‘orders to Google’ to hide the info … the media leaves Americans themselves in the dark about what is really going on in US courtrooms … the bribed judges gladly give ‘orders to Google’ including a gag order to all parties and to Google itself, to hide that such an order was given … Google, a heavy user itself of bribed judge ‘favours’, is always glad to do some extra service for their judges and law firms tied to the oligarchs
Let’s not romanticize Americans too much here. My local credit union offers personal loans for “Christmas cash” (nice of them to say Christmas). You can see more on the financial carnage Christmas inflicts on the average ordinary nobody here: https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/12/17/christmas-its-costlier-than-you-think.aspx
A Federal Reserve study found that half of Americans do not have enough cash on hand to cover a $400 emergency: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/nearly-half-dont-have-the-cash-to-pay-for-a-400-emergency-fed-survey-finds-2017-05-19
The Baby Boomer generation has embarrassingly low retirement savings: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/032216/are-we-baby-boomer-retirement-crisis.asp
Now it is perhaps true that America’s deep, sophisticated consumer credit markets are partly responsible for this embarrassing state of affairs. Prior to the mid-1990s the household savings rate had hovered around 10% since the 1920s, comparable to Germany. That said, a truly sophisticated understanding of finance informs one that credit can disappear–particularly in a crisis (whether personal or national) which reduces creditworthiness. After the financial crisis many strapped Americans were shocked to discover their home equity line of credit suddenly revoked.
Of course access to consumer finance and investment products in America are better than anywhere else in the world, and a deep pool of knowledge is available if one is interested (even Reddit is pretty good, even if the betas at r/personalfinance banned me for stating that diversification is for losers). 0% introductory APR credit cards, commission free brokerage trades (Robinhood), and huge varieties of tax advantaged investment accounts (401k, IRA, Roth IRA, 403b, HSA, 529 plan, and more) do not exist elsewhere in the world. Not only is trading securities cheaper than anywhere else (or in the case of funds, expense ratio costs), but the USA has the world’s largest financial markets by far with innumerable high quality assets.
And contrary to myth, financial regulation is quite good. The USA was the first nation to regulate securities issuance, ban insider trading, and guarantee bank deposits and brokerage accounts. Personal bankruptcy laws are generous compared to most other advanced countries, and substantial government support exists to make long-term mortgages available to nearly all people. The bad features of American financial regulation consist primarily of looking the other way at Wall Street gambling (sounds bad, but has only blown up nationally twice in the past century) and predatory feasting on the dull (immoral, but irrelevant and even beneficial for the readers of this article).
The biggest disadvantage here is American extraterritorial taxation and banking laws. Extraterritorial taxation is being abolished with the new tax cut, and the draconian foreign reporting laws (FATCA) which make it extremely difficult to open foreign bank and brokerage accounts (fortunately Denmark’s Saxo Bank opens foreign brokerage accounts for Americans) are reportedly next on the chopping block.
And you lived in the Bay Area. In whitopia/flyover country, encounters with government bureaucrats are fast, efficient, and friendly. At my local DMV issues of any kind are resolved within minutes, there are no lines, and service comes with a smile.
You could really just expand this into retail in general. America has more retail square footage per person than any other country–almost twenty times as much as Germany. Walmart, for at its lumpenproleness, is remarkable. Costco is a marvelous testament to American civilization and is beloved in all foreign countries it opens in. Jet.com (now owned by Walmart) sells bulk goods (think large packages of paper towels) far cheaper than Amazon and throws in free shipping for orders over $35. Manufacturers/brands which attempt to sell direct to consumers generally offer free shipping over a minimum order amount in order to prevent Amazon from becoming their only channel.
I’m not sure if this extends to Russia, but in Western Europe you have to pay for grocery bags and shopping carts (you get your coin back when you return the cart admittedly), and you’re forced to bag your own groceries like a loser. This is unheard of in America other than at ALDI (a German chain), Trader Joe’s (owned by ALDI North), and warehouse stores.
A few points:
The vast majority of US rail freight is bulk commodities like coal, ore, grains etc .. which log fewer ton-miles in Europe. It’s better to compare mode share where trucking is actually competitive with rail: container traffic.
Secondly Europe’s rail network isn’t at all like America’s. There are gauge breaks, different couplers and different signaling systems across countries, it’s also a lot more fragmented with each country having it’s own rail network, quite different from the continent spanning (ok half-continent spanning) networks like BNSF/UP.
First, I don’t blog here for free, and have a couple of other minor Internet-based income sources.
Second, I am not actively looking for a job. However, based on people with similar profiles to me, I think chances are high that I will be able to find something in the 150,000-250,000R range if I really had to. I’m not particularly interested in that right now, since I don’t have a pressing need for it, and rather appreciate my NEET lyfestyle (no schedules, wake up whenever I want, etc).
My current plans revolve around expanding into writing books (yes, yes, I know I have been promising books to my long-suffering readers for years now – but I really do think 2018 will be the year). Because it’s long overdue, yes, and because I need to start making a name for myself as a publicist beyond just blogging, sure, but the purchasing power markup from selling to Americans/living in Russia certainly doesn’t hurt either.
The couplers used in Europe West-of-Russia (rail term) also cannot handle nearly as much tonnage as those used in North America or the former Soviet Union, with the exception of Malmbanan (Iron Ore Line) in Northern Sweden and Norway. Even if such couplers were employed I’m not sure if European rail networks could handle the long, heavy trains that routinely lumber the Union Pacific and BNSF networks.
Europe also has fundamentally less need for heavy freight rail than Russia or North America, as almost every location on the continent is close to a port (including inland ports). America is well served by waterways east of the Mississippi, but has practically none at all west of it.
Coal alone is responsible for nearly one third of all tonnage on Class I freight railroads, and a quick look at the map will show you there are no waterways anywhere near the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. Likewise the rich harvest of the great plains needs to be hauled by rail to the Mississippi before it can go on a barge (if it goes on a barge–the Union Pacific yard in Joliet, Illinois is one of the largest grain loading stations in the world).
That’s not to excuse Europe for not making an effort to created a unified continental freight system capable of heavy haulage anymore than we should excuse North America for our comically bad passenger rail services (for which you can make the same argument that they are less necessary).
Russia (and China) has both, though unlike China and Western Europe there is little HSR in Russia.
Seriously? Where do you live? I used to live in Arizona and now live in Washington state, and I have never bagged groceries at Trader Joe’s or Costco (I believe it qualifies as a warehouse store). The only places where I bag my own groceries, by choice, are self-checkout lanes at regular grocery stores, such as Safeway or Fred Meyer (owned by Kroger, AFAIK).
Come to think of it, you are correct about Trader Joe’s for sure.
I live in a rural area and have not been to a Trader Joe’s or Costco in three years (used to live in a large city), so my memory is rusty.
Trader Joe’s I must have mentally associated with ALDI (as it is owned by ALDI North is really just fancy ALDI).
As for Costco I do genuinely remember them not bagging things, but perhaps they bag for you if you bring your own bags instead of using the boxes?
My community has a Kroger-owned chain and a Walmart, as well as two independents. All bag for you (though self check out lanes are available at Kroger and Walmart).
I’d love to shop at Costco again, but it’s not worth driving 3 hours round trip when I can order things in bulk from Jet.com.
And yes, Fred Meyer is owned by Kroger.
I’ve heard complaints from Polish people that Star Wars has become ridiculously PC.
NP, thanks for clarifying. I thought maybe you live in some state where, due to labor laws, you have to bag your groceries at Trader Joe’s. 🙂
You are right about Costco, I should have been more clear. They don’t bag, but reload everything into the shopping cart and put stuff in boxes if you want them to. Most of their stuff is too bulky to bag, I just put big packages straight into the trunk and a few smaller items into a bag.
But speaking of Costco, I generally find their staff to be by far the most unfriendly of all major retailers; borderline rude sometimes, as if I’m a burden to them for shopping there. If it weren’t so cheap, I wouldn’t shop there at all. This is in the Seattle area.
Chicken Fried Steak. That is a big one and I mean it. Even better access than in Russia to CT Scan takes second place to that. And then there is a Pacific Northwest and Rockies which have a very similar in its stunning beauty Russian Altai–but in Altai you are 3000 miles East-West away from the nearest ocean. In US even in Rockies (including Canadian ones) you are never more than 6-7 hour drive away, unless you are really out there there and you are never too far away from an espresso stand. One has to have latte every day (and night). In general, American West is stunning, granted one stays away from uber liberal urban centers.
When I left my apartment today, there was a stack of Amazon boxes outside my door. The delivery man (usually either Amazon’s own or FedEx) must have buzzed another apartment in the building to get in.
Amazon is working on a service where you’ll have some kind of electronic lock on your door and the delivery man will bring the stuff into your home. I’m not sure how they’ll handle pets running out though.
It is an interesting question, what new high culture is the world producing, now and in the future.
You could argue that science has produced a new kind of high culture, through its combination of mathematics and natural philosophy. To give just one example, particle physics – the actual practice of particle physics, as opposed to its vicarious consumption in pop culture and pop science – is one of the great intellectual adventures of recent decades. Add to this genetics, neuroscience, astronomy, and you have a type of ‘culture’ which could be shared even with an artificial intelligence.
So in the end maybe it comes back to those notions of transhumanism and the singularity. New types of being are still emerging, even as much of the world turns away from the new-left utopia of hedonist homogeneity in favor of tradition; and the character of the future will fundamentally be determined by how these new powers are employed, and to what ends.
Care to explain this?
Amazon Prime is also available in the EU, which made me wonder:
Are all those Africans making perilous sea journeys across the Med just to get the benefits of Amazon Prime?
The high culture of modern science is universal in a way that not even music can be, which contributes to the tension between those socialized as scientists and those who appreciate the necessity of preserving local tradition. As a scientist who grew up in the US and has worked in various US and European research institutions, I find it much easier to relate to my scientific colleagues, regardless of where they come from, than to people with whom I played in the sandbox as a child. And I say this as a traditional, family-oriented Christian. To me, this is one of the many unavoidable paradoxes in life.
I pick the one where I can have guns. Lots of guns. And enough ammunition for them. All delivered by the case loads by FedEx.
One thing Mr. Karlin alluded to in the companion piece earlier, but did not expand in comparison of the respective qualities of life in the two countries is that beyond the “super zips.” (Something about poor internet connection in small towns, I think.)
In the United States, it’s very feasible to live in a medium-sized or even smallish city away from the coastal areas and enjoy the cultural and commercial benefits of larger cities (e.g. ethnic restaurants, shops, hobbies, etc.) without suffering some of the ill effects of urban behemoths (so less stress, noise, less expensive homes, access to nature, etc.). Not unrelated to this phenomenon is the fact that there has been a great deal of “democratization” of the upper middle and upper classes in the United States (true, our middle class has shrunk, but our upper middle and upper classes have grown greatly in the past several decades). So there is a relatively high demand for upscale goods (whether cultural or commercial) all over the country, not just in a few wealthy enclaves and major cities.
I would like to read Mr. Karlin’s view of this in Russia, but my experiences in many other countries, even relatively well-developed ones, is that they tend to have a great deal of this kind of cultural/commercial activities in the capitals, but they decline dramatically in the small towns. So you either get big city problems and benefits or small town boredom.
Especially for the younger generations, a good quality of life isn’t simply about income versus expenses or house sizes or car ownership. It’s often about “activities” and “lifestyles.” I feel that one of the advantages of the United States is that the country makes these possible even away from the major metropolitan areas.
When my mother came to the U.S. for the first time, she absolutely marveled at the fact that mail, especially parcel, was left outside in unsecured boxes. “And no one steals them! What a great country. What a great people.”
That culture of trust is still alive, Gott sei Dank. May that last forever.
Yes, but that’s separate from the culture of most people, even rather educated ones. No one today is writing poetry about evolutionary theory (let alone particle physics) like Lucretius did about atoms and other elements of the Epicurean world view.
There is, of course, American culture in Japan, but it does not dominate Japanese cultural life. Practically no American TV programming on Japanese TV. Only films that now come to Japan are blockbusters, but Japanese audiences go in larger numbers to the films Japanese studios churn out–teen drama, romance, horror, samurai, police-thriller. Japanese remain partial to Japanese cuisine. They DO play baseball, but are partial to their own brand of the game. Japanese are notorious for their resistance to English language. Shinto, Buddhism, Yamabushi, and various other non-Western sects dominate “spiritual” life. Unlike South Korea, Christianity never caught on in Japan. Pop-music wise, Japanese are into their J-pop, along with some K-pop bands. My students do not know who Elvis Presley, Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan are. Japanese read their own writers or manga. They play their own video games. When I explained–tried to explain Christianity (and Judaism)–to my students (as I did recently before Christmas), they ended up laughing. Despite fact that Japan remains close “ally” of the US and there certainly are Americano-philes around, my students prefer Australia or Canada to US (“too dangerous”) as places to go for language study in vacations–and they have definitely become more China and Southeast Asia-oriented.
There are charming and peaceful bedroom communities/dacha areas outside Moscow that are wooded and that offer big-city amenities. My brother-in-law has a place in the center and a dacha in such a community in a pine forest, and in summer commutes from the latter to his job in the city. This might be analogous to a place way outside DC – not a small nice city far from large metro areas, though.
Smaller big cities far from Moscow and St.Petersburg, such as Kazan and Chelyabinsk, are fairly well-developed and have a lot to offer. The Urals are very charming, resembling the Catskills but with pines trees, and have lakes and islands and in post-Soviet times ski resorts. Some of the best Moscow theaters of ballets travel to such places in the summer. I suspect their local ballets or theaters are superior to ones in small American cities (if the latter even have them) because classic “high culture” is more respected in Russia in general.
I haven’t visited Irktusk by Lake Baikal, but it may also be a very nice place.
You forgot the most important thing (I would rate it #1): the climate. It is most unforgiving and punishing. At least in Canada and Scandinavia you have better living standards. In Russia you have to suffer all your life with 7-month winter and never get at least some compensation for your suffering. And frankly, even big money do not always seem a fair compensation for living in this environment. And they ask why Russians do not smile. Too cold to smile, or you’ll got your teeth frostbitten.
Yes, especially in Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, along Volga down to Astrakhan–sure, especially when it hits 40 C there and stays warm most of the year, with relatively short winters. What a load of contrived BS.
I’ve seen people eating ice cream outside in winter in the Urals region. They were happy. Do you think that people in Montreal or Minneapolis are miserable? Winter means cross-country skiing, snow sculptures, theater, ice skating, etc.
Maybe you are just personally an unhappy person?
Americans dominate mass market movies, but that’s another thing than the quality segment. There are many very good films being made on small budgets but who never get a big audience. Most people are not aware of them. I wouldn’t say that Americans “dominate” the quality film segment.
As for literature, Americans certainly have their fair share of good authors. I personally like Twain the most. But I’m not talking of past greats. I’m talking of the here and now.
And it’s not even about the authors themselves. It’s about the audience. How easy is it for me, as someone who enjoys high culture, to go to shows/plays etc? Russia just beats America out of the water for someone who is not rich. Sure, the elite in the US have a good selection but high culture is accessible in Russia for a reasonable sum for those who are interested. There will still only be a minority who are, but at least they won’t be limited by the size of their wallet nearly to the same extent as in the US. Plus, as I already mentioned, most of the high quality plays, operas, ballets etc are imported from Europe. Even if you were only to limit yourself to Russian-origin plays/operas/ballets and vice-versa but in the US, you’d end up with a much better selection in Russia, especially in ballet.
But for me it’s not even an e-peen contest. I don’t mind watching an Italian opera in Moscow. What matters to me is how easy it is in terms of A) cost(I’m in my 20s and it matters for me. Student income is not high and my family is not rich) B) convenience and C) quality. Pound-for-pound, Russia beats the US, easily, when you look at all three combined.
In every grocery store on earth you have to pay for bags, either directly or indirectly. But I’d much rather receive a discount for bringing my own bags than have to pay [via increased grocery prices] for bags that I don’t want or need. I wish there were a law requiring stores to explicitly charge for bags. I don’t want to subsidize the wastefulness of people like you.
As for baggers, it is nice to have dedicated baggers, but this too increases the cost. At my local grocer, sometimes there is no bagger and I have to bag my own while the cashier is ringing my stuff up. Not a big deal because otherwise I would just be standing there making small talk with the bagger anyway.
Already classical physics (Newton and Maxwell) is a tremendous achievement of human civilization, and the number of people studying it right now, this very day*, must far exceed the number of people who have ever studied De rerum natura. As for particle physics, if you’d like to get a hint of the passion it excites, I recommend the film Particle Fever.
*Well, maybe some day this very month. Right now even I am drinking whiskey.
Indeed, you not only pay for the bag at the shop, but also for the landfill through your taxes. The technical term is “externality”. Are there not some US cities that have a bylaw about charging for plastic bags, or banning them outright?
I don’t doubt that, but it’s a small minority that cares passionately about it. The vast majority of people (myself included) are probably just too stupid to even understand particle physics anyway. Its potential to provide a common frame of references for at least society’s elite (which traditionally was one of the functions of high culture) seems rather limited.
But it’s undoubtedly a fascinating subject, I didn’t mean to denigrate it.
I agree that particle physics is unlikely to ever provide a common frame of reference for the elite. Alas, even basic logic, probability, and statistics seem unlikely to ever provide that common frame of reference, although they are accessible to many and could make a huge positive difference in the functioning of society.
Anatoly fair article (although issues like guns are hardly top of our minds when we choose to immigrate).
The Americans who complain all day on websites like this one, are almost all people that did not manage to get good jobs (hence the anger, which colours political views).
In a case where securing a good job in the US is not arranged before trying to immigrate, it is of course better to stay in Russia. But if you are a Russian who has high skillset and talents – America is indeed a kind of miracle. A sufficiently talented computer scientist – can walk into job with annual salary of $200,000 a year in Palo Alto. Now in Moscow there are hundreds of $60,000 a year computer science jobs – (some Russian salaries, especially for multi-national companies, can be higher even in nominal terms than in many ‘supposedly Western’ countries like Israel, and this combined with lower cost of living) – but the number of jobs is far fewer compared to in US, and the competition in application is at least as high, if with lower paperwork hassle.
For people with the right skills – America is a kind of paradise. But the reality is that this is issue is only relevant or available to a small portion of the labour-force in Russia (or indeed the United States itself).
Everything you have written pretty much sums up the problem that we have, but not in the way you think it is. If your only concern is about how much money you earn then you will never get it, you will support 5 million Africans immigrating into Russia and still think it is a good idea if it guaranteed you more money. Having your lands overrun by foreigners, especially third world foreigners, is infinitely more important than the type of job one has, even if it is a very well paying job. I need to also point out that the poorest countries tend to have the most people that care only about money, successful ones tend to have values that transcend just desiring 30 pieces of silver.
But dude, then you’d have to live in Palo Alto rather than Moscow…
In Moscow, my salary is about a third of what it would be in the US (and significantly less than $60,000), but my personal utility function is much closer to a maximum than it would be in the US. In fact, if I owned my own flat or country house, my salary could be cut in half and I’d still prefer to live here. So I think much of this comes down to one’s personal preferences.
Given that Alexander Pushkin was a quadroon and proudly claimed by Russians as one of their greatest writers, one could argue that Russia has been even more diversified by proximity and acceptance through intermarriage.
San Francisco regulates them. For all their many, many flaws, leftists get some things right.
Thanks, autist.
Marketers long ago figured out that “free” is an effective sales tactic.
And then your life would suck horribly, considering the median house price in Palo Alto is $2.8M. Median apartment rent is $5450 per month. Good luck buying that $2.8M house with your $200K income, or even with your $300K income. On which you’d have to pay CA income tax of 10%, on top of all federal taxes.
You obviously don’t live anywhere close to Palo Alto and have no idea what you’re talking about when it comes to what you can buy with $200K (hint: not much).
This hasn’t been mentioned in either Russia > USA or USA > Russia, posts, so I am bringing it up.
One of the most important reasons why life would be better in one vs. the other is: AFAIK, in Russia the government is not the enemy of the people and is not trying force everyone to accept unacceptable beliefs and to replace the people with foreigners. In USA, most of you already know the situation, even if you don’t live here, simply by following various writers on Unz.com. Steve Sailer has been covering this since forever.
I don’t know enough about Russia, but my impression is that the bolded sentence above is essentially correct. Anatoly or other Russians here, please correct me if I’m wrong on that.
If the above differtence holds, ask yourselves: how much is that worth to you? To the future of your family and children?
Pushkin was not a quadroon. An octoroon, rather (1/8th). And by all indications his great-grandpa was a remarkable man [of still uncertain origin].
And, he was not “one of the Russian greatest writers” but rather the greatest Russian poet ever and one of the Russia’s most impressive fiction writers (probably shared with Gogol; Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky helm a proud second tier).
You seem upset.
Intelligent people long ago figured out that marketers are full of shit. Bags are never “free.” They cost the store money and the store passes the cost on one way or another.
^ Again (this is one of the ever-present culture-shocks for me) people in America can have a rather different concept of what ‘not much’ means, even to point of surrealness.
^ A salary of $200,000 a year in California, results in $130,000 in your pocket after all taxes (take home pay).
While I do not share your all-negative views on American government, and feel that the government in the Russian Federation is also usually trying to improve or manage the situation to best of its ability.
There are indeed many immigrants in Russia, and this is quite a universal experience around the world, as immigrants are flooding for higher salaries.
https://sputniknews.com/russia/20130912183384782-Russia-Has-Second-Largest-Number-of-Immigrants–UN-Study/
Here in Washington State, Bellingham (called Bellingrad in mocking tribute to the Soviet Union’s Leningrad and Stalingrad by local right-wing types in response to the leftist politics infesting the city government) and also I believe Seattle regulate or ban disposable plastic grocery bags.
You don’t get it, really. Half of your $130K take home pay would go to pay your rent ($60K), building the owner’s equity, not yours. You would never be able to afford a home anywhere close to where you work. Yes, you would be able to afford a nice car, new iPhone, etc., but you would never accumulate any real wealth. Don’t forget that you have to save enough for retirement, college for your children, etc. That $130K would quickly drop to below $100K for all your living expenses.
With your $200K annual salary you would be working poor in Palo Alto. It’s not that “people in America can have a rather different concept of what ‘not much’ means, even to point of surrealness”; it’s that you don’t understand how things work here, and you are unwilling to do detailed budget calculation to figure out just how much or little that $200K is in your chosen location. You are being blinded by the absolute figure ($200K) so its relative purchasing power escapes you completely.
Interesting piece but some of the racist undertones (starting with rip-off Caucausian gypsy cabs; oh, in Russia Slavs never cheat you–how silly of me to forget) are jarring. I suspect the author isn’t even aware of this, which makes it the more disconcerting.
They are not the alt-right country of your fantasies, son.
The boxes in this case were outside my apartment door, but inside the building and behind the locked front door. But AFAIK, the only thefts of boxes in my building were by a mentally ill guy living in an apartment his parents owned here. He was caught on security cams and arrested I think.
I don’t have any fantasies; I asked a question. If you have anything tangible to offer as an argument either way, go ahead. Otherwise spare me the patronizing BS, дурак.
It’s not all-negative; I agree with Anatoly’s points for the most part. I was very specific in my comments about what I think is the big difference between Russia and USA. My comment has to do more with the direction of the society, not the immediate day to day life, especially in nice parts of the USA.
And of course you don’t agree with me; you don’t live here. Proof that the propaganda works. You would have to experience it first hand to understand it.
“For instance, a couple of months ago, a salesperson came knocking to my flat, offering to replace the windows ”
Double glazing scams by fly-by-night companies happen in the UK. They are a cliche of TV consumer journalism – reporter + cameraman chasing after dodgy business guy who fleeced some widow.
Nowadays, you can add solar panel scams to the list.
Why are you trying ot infect them with your abrahamic virus? Instead, you should be looking to adopt Euro Pagan/Buddhist beliefs & values||
Newton & others developed those off Asian manuscripts||
USA dominates the field of the bio-medical sciences.
Do you hear this, Mr. Nordic censor?
I am only familiar with science blogs, so could you point me to that part of the internet that discusses such films?
Even the nice car would be leased (so you’d have to worry about losing your job), and probably it wouldn’t be very nice.
Another problem many people don’t understand is that your self-worth (and satisfaction with your shiny new car) largely depends on what others own around you. In a place where “everyone is rich”, only the same percentage of people will feel really well-off as in a place where “everyone is poor”. Owning a 200 hp full-sized sedan is a sign of being well-off in Hungary (where relatively few people can afford it), but it is not in Palo Alto. Your social status will be very low in Palo Alto.
The frost free period in Rostov and Krasnodar is 180-200 days (6 months on average). Only on the small land strip along the Black Sea it may raise up to 220-260 days (the majority of the USA and W. Europe enjoy this by default). But even then in Krasnodar you may easily encounter -20C in winter, in even on Sochi there can be whole weeks below zero. It is not a secret knowledge, you just watch weather forecasts to know what the climate is in different parts of your country. I understand following the forecast in Russia while living in America is difficult. And remember that region is 10% of Russia at best. Or I may tell you about Voronezh (the south, eh?): frosts start normally in November and may last up to April. 5 months straight. Spring April and Autumn October often are not much better. So you practically have just 5 liveable months a year. The fact that there can also be +40C in summer is just an argument against: not only you must sustain the extreme cold in winter, but the extreme heat in summer.
I know you are a military specialist and I respect your knowledge, but, please, refrain from speaking about the things you fail to understand. Geography seems to be not your strong side. You do much better with missiles, ships and other such iron crap.
And by the way telling what your parents failed to tell you: simply calling others’ words BS is basic rudeness, and it never gives you a winning point. I don’t expect politeness from everybody on this resource, but you are not a dick, are you?
Unless you personally live in Montreal or Minneapolis, do not tell others how wonderful is winter. Let them decide for themselves how perfect their climate is. Not everybody may enjoy it, because you enjoy it. Yes, all Russians must be unhappy then, because complaining about winter is a common topic among them. I bet Canadians and northern Americans are not much different. Ever heard the term “snowbird”?
It’s nice to be in Montreal, Minneapolis or the Urals, but the Atlantic seaboard of NW Europe (places like the Northern UK, Belgium, Holland, Northern France) don’t seem to get much of a summer or winter either. Cold Westerly winds reliably bringing overcast grey skies with rain and drizzle.
This does have a background effect.
There’s a lot wrong with the lower latitudes of the Mediterranean, but the climate isn’t one of them. Having spent the last 30 yrs+ on the Spanish Mediterranean on about the same latitude as Algiers, Tunis and Palermo I can say that sunny days are preferable to cold wet ones – even accepting the excess heat in July – August.
What are your monthly expenses? (I do not ask about the income as we all now know you are a lazy parasitic bourgeois class element). It is very important to know for understanding what you really mean when you say “prices are low”.
Driving in winter is a nightmare (also much slower), even walking is harder. However, I find snow a much more pleasant experience than the constant raining in much of Northwest Europe. When it’s cold and raining it’s much harder to bear for me than when it’s cold and snowing. However, much of Russia is too cold for that to be true: I think the ideal weather (except for driving and agriculture) would include roughly 5-6 months of winter with a constant -5 (occasionally -10) degrees Celsius followed and preceded by 1-1 month of fall and spring, respectively, and then maybe 4-5 months of summer with roughly 28 degrees Celsius. That doesn’t exist, since Russia is too cold unfortunately.
Cold winter has health advantages like you can swim in really cold water (if it’s frozen, you need dedicated places where they safely make some holes in the ice so that you don’t get into trouble), or sauna in warm countries is often stupid with no real cold water afterwards. (To top it off, they don’t even make it warm enough either.) Even in Hungary or Western Europe people often think swimming in cold water is crazy, whereas as far as I know Russians are at least aware that it’s good.
It’s immaterial. Prices are cheaper than in the US, why does it matter how much he spends?
Please lecture us more about not being a dick and not insulting others.
I wouldn’t call AK a “lazy parasitic bourgeois class element”. He’s been very busy lately and his last post got 412 comments so somebody’s interested in his writing.
You say that nothing new is produced. Could it be because there are no longer any aristocrats with spare time on their hands and a guaranteed standard of living?
Refer to #8 on the sister article.
I have a friend who loves hardcore cold and would prefer to live in someplace like Verkhoyansk if it had Moscow’s amenities. Actually he’s planning a trip to deep Siberia early February just to get some time in the icebox.
Personally I view Moscow’s climate as just ideal, especially with the nice global warming we’re having. Worst one for me is the North Atlantic one (probably tropical would be even worse, but have never been there, so can’t judge).
So you can’t just extrapolate your own climatic preferences to everyone.
Based on personal observations, Brits whine about their weather more than anybody, while Meds/Californians never do, so I assume my intuition that northern maritime climes are indeed the most depressing.
Fine with being called a lazy parasitic bourgeois class element, I don’t pretend to be otherwise, though personally I prefer the term “NEET.”
That said, I agree with reiner Tor that the question seems to be pointless – I mentioned different categories of products and how much they cost relative to the US, who the fuck cares whether I subsist on potatoes or roll around in a Lexus and shop at Azbuka Vkusa everyday. But I’ll humor you. While I don’t particularly deny myself comforts, I am hardly a spendthrift either. My cell phone is now 5 years old, and when it croaks I’ll probably replace it with some $200-$300 Chinese model. I don’t have a car and don’t plan on getting one. I get generic clothes from local markets, not brand name stuff from department stores. I daresay lots of Russians who can afford it less dress better and have more modern electronics than I do.
As I wrote, cold rain is probably the worst weather possible within normal temperature ranges. But extreme cold or extreme heat can be just as bad. If I had to have them, I’d go for both, alternating yearly, which is basically Moscow or Siberia. I have a Siberian Russian great-grandmother among my ancestors, though my grandma (who spent her childhood in a village near Tomsk) told me summers were horrible in a different way, extreme heat and swarms of mosquitoes… so I don’t think I’d like it.
The very best climate for me (which I’ve seen) is Hungary, relatively dry, with relatively cold winters (they could be a bit colder and I’d like more snow), and long and warm summers. Roughly on the same level is Austria, South Germany, Switzerland, all of which are wetter (a minus) but as a corollary with more snow in winters (a plus). Coincidentally, these are the countries from which almost 90% of my ancestors came from over the past few centuries.
Home ownership, unless you get lucky, is not a means to grow wealth. Home prices tend to appreciate at the rate of inflation (surprise), and even in the Bay Area real price appreciation has only be 3.6% pa since 1980 (returns on equities have been 3x that). A house produces no income and incurs maintenance and tax costs.
If you don’t plan on leaving the area anytime soon, then home ownership is a better deal than renting–that’s it. And this comes at the cost of increased risk and reduced flexibility. Totally overrated American obsession.
It’s true that housing is appallingly overpriced in coastal California, but this hypothetical person perhaps might be an outside the box thinker since he reads the Unz Review. He could live with roommates or in a recreational vehicle to minimize his housing costs.
No matter where you live you will never accumulate real wealth on $200k a year, at least not for many years. You either need to go into business yourself or reach executive ranks.
Retirement is for losers, so that solves that problem. And in any case “saving for retirement” = building real wealth.
No need whatsoever to pay for your children’s college, that’s a personal choice. I do think it wise to send boys to college provided they can get into the right schools. And should you choose to do so it need not be ruinously expensive at all by making use of in-state tuition, the armed forces, etc.
If you want to be particularly sneaky you can create a 529 college savings plan and then push the designated beneficiary to join the armed forces, which allows you to claim the tax-advantaged wealth in the fund.
Obviously California is ruinously expensive and things are harder for average schmucks in America than it used to be, but the idea you can’t get ahead at all is just whinging. Americans can’t get ahead because they “need” Netflix, DirecTV with NFL Sunday Ticket, new cars, annual vacations, spend more money on restaurants than groceries, daily coffee shop visits (or MONSTER energy drinks UNLEASH THE ULTRABEAST), etc.
There once was a lively and fairly large cineaste culture in the US. People went to see films by Fellini, Bergman, Rohmer, Kurosawa, Truffaut, Satyajit Ray, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Roberto Rossellini, Bertolucci , Werner Herzog, Costa-Gavras and other furriners.
For the most part I agree wtih your observations, especially with your final brandishment of what Americans ‘need’. But don’t forget that buying homes as an investment can still be a lucrative business (maybe not as a good a deal as pre-1970′s, but still pretty good). Collecting rent on say 3-4 homes every month can help one extend those yearly vacations to some pretty exotic locales…Equities may have averaged 11% over the long haul, but tell that to an investor that bailed out in 2008-2010?…
(discipline is easier said than done).
You know,the more I read your blog and peer into the little quips regarding your own personal life, likes and dislikes, the more I begin to appreciate (dare I say ‘like’) you, Anatoly? You seem to exhibit an unabashed, devil may care, attitude that appeals to me. Also, your ability to not take yourself too seriously is a good trait too. If it weren’t for your crazy attachment to the indefensible idea of ‘triunism’ or even crazier version called ‘quadrism’, I’d consider you a regular guy? 🙂
Say, what does ‘NEET’ stand for anyway?…
You have the option, here in the USA, to pick up packages at the UPS or USPS facility.
You also have the option of requiring a signature for delivery at your home address, I.e. telling the carrier not to leave the package unattended.
No shipping option is unavailable in the USA that is available in eurabia, I mean Europe.
Agree with most of what you say.
But what are you talking about when you refer to banning alcohol in the USA? Some States give the people of counties and towns the right to prohibit the sale of alcohol entirely or on Sundays.
There aren’t many places that prohibit local alcohol sales entirely. Even then it is legal to buy alcohol elsewhere and bring it home, I.e. From a neighboring town, county, or State that doesn’t have the same law.
I don’t agree with such restrictions, but they’re not not common in most States and there is NEVER a ban on possessing and drinking alcohol on any day of the year, anywhere.
Here in LA, grocery stores and convenience stores are required to charge for each plastic bag. I’m not sure if that is State law or just LA County/City. I think it’s statewide; neighboring Orange County has the same thing and, if I recall, so does Kern County (home to the City of Bakersfield and once the late great country singer Buck Owens).
Chet Bradley – No and please don’t the assume life and knowledge of other people. I work for a multi-national corporation and have lived and worked previously in Ireland. I also have friends working in Israel and my brother is in the United States. My brother indeed lives in Menlo Park for over a year and cycles each day to work Palo Alto. I have visited him, as many other parts of the United States. I have very first-hand experience. He rents a modern bedroom apartment for around $2500 per month if I remember (I could be wrong) . This is a modern, high-quality bedroom apartment. He has healthcare, gym membership and money left over for regular plane tickets to travel (his last holiday was to go to Japan). He is now planning to buy a new 2018 Subaru Impreza. Again, if this is your definition of ‘not much’, which it appears to be in the context of your remark – it is rather comical. Standard of living is incredible. But – as I said earlier – this is a product of studying very hard at university.
I did a little research on my own, and it looks like the NEET’s are the progeny of yeterday’s slackers.Somehow, I don’t have you pegged this way…perhaps ‘a lazy parasitic bourgeois class element’ is more accurate? Having experienced a few bouts of unemployment myself throughout my working career, I can surely identify with those that find themselves ‘working’ at home, dressed in their overnight pajamas, or even underwear…it gets boring after a while.
https://youtu.be/gTCP9HZVX7s
I vote the advantages of cold climate. Land with a warm climate (in most cases) are overpopulated and turned into fields. But in the cold climate preserved the vast wild forest, lakes, swamp berries, etc.
here are my summer walks
https://d.radikal.ru/d09/1712/17/1b0b613aca5f.jpg
https://b.radikal.ru/b06/1712/2b/de84492ea487.jpg
In addition the heat is worse than cold. When in our area the temperature during the month was +35, I die. I spent time in the forest near the sea or in the woods near the lake, constantly bathed, but it was still awful. And what about those who have to work in this heat?
If America is the center of Global Culture, it is a disgusting, nihilist, and sick culture. This is the very “culture” Russia has and always will reject. And it is destroying the foundations of Western civilization, and is no threat in the long-term.
BTW, I am American, no Russia heritage, and I live in the US, but have spent time in Russian, living there for a time. I am also Russian Orthodox.
This is obviously not true. 90% of movies that people watch in cinemas in Russia, it is American movies. 50-60% of television series (looking at Russia) is an American television series. 40% of books are translations from English (in most cases it’s an American book).
Modern Russian literature and television industry is under strong Anglo-American influence.
You may take heart from hearing that this is very much true of Europe still, except for Ray (most people would only know of the Apu trilogy, if that) and Costa-Gavras, whom I have never heard of.
Lovely pictures. The outdoors look much the same on the other side of the Baltic Sea. And we too have a popular theory that the chilly weather makes us better workers than people who have to suffer scorching summer days (and air conditioning only helps to a degree; it cuts deeper than that).
Indeed, but were not at one time this fall the top four films at Russian cinemas Russian-made? A post-Soviet record, I believe. The same is true of Russian hip-hop, which has just seen its best year yet since 1991 in terms of audience numbers. An American import, sure, but still a home-grown product in the sense that young people listen to Oxxxymiron’s take on life in Saint Petersburg rather than Chance the Rapper’s take on life in Chicago.
Some of us like the cold and wet (wet->not freezing). My experience is that the older people get the more they appreciate warmth and not worrying about slipping on ice. People used to go to Scotland or Switzerland for the weather, though, so there may be a factor of fashion or culture in there too.
I have family in the Indian subcontinent and, having stayed there, much prefer the American eastern seaboard where I live.
Thank you, Mr. Hack, that’s appreciated (no, really).
Feel free to give me a ring if you’re ever in Moscow, always down to meet my readers over a cold one.
Mountains and forests are not bad, even if it’s cold and raining. The Scottish weather is something some people prefer over heat in the summer.
Marxist analysis mode on
Bourgeoisie, as we all know, are owners of the means of production. Stereotypical NEET owns nothing, according to Marxism he is lazy parasitic lumpenproletariat class element. Lumpenproletariat being deeply reactionary force, weapon in the hands of aristocracy and big bourgeoisie used against working class. Nothing about “alt-right” and 4chan would surprise old Karl.
/ Marxist analysis mode off
The problem with the NW European coast vs. the NE States of the US, seems to be the way the wind blows. Atlantic Westerlies can bring whole weeks of rain and overcast skies when they meet the landmass of NW Europe, something like the coast of the US from N. California to Alaska in winter.
I don’t know about people going to Scotland and Switzerland for the weather. In the past English Gentlemen used to go shooting and fishing and Scotland, with breaks in Switzerland for mountain walking.
You’re not talking about home ownership.
You’re talking about rental properties, which has been a good (if annoying) business as long as there has been business.
And the long run return on American equities is more in the neighborhood of 8%.
I have lived for at least 6 months in Steven’s Creek, Boise and Boulder, which I will call Denver and over the US border in Vancouver, (well Burnaby), my favourite city anywhere. In Russia I have years on the clock in Saratov. Saratov and Denver are very comparable as provincial cities with oil, wheat and electronic/optical industries although Kansas City (there after a scout jamboree in 1967) would bring in the river port.
I prefer the Denver climate. It is warmer, -15C is the worst I experienced. There was less snow and it was cleared much faster. Many streets in Saratov are simply not cleared at all. In the Summer, Saratov turns into a dusty oven. I have stood on the station platform with the station thermometer reading +42C. Late June, July and August are hell. My staff insisted on enduring anything under 32C as they disapproved of airconditioning – unhealthy.
The dust and in April, the mud, was made far worse in Saratov, by the appallingly built and maintained pavements (sidewalks) and road surfaces with dust and mud trapping potholes everywhere and few working kerbs. If Russians can laugh at the UK when it snows, the same goes for Russia when it rains. Every street floods due to inadequate, not just blocked drains. The roads are of course desperately bad in more ways than I can describe inside the city or in the rural areas. Rural roads in Colorado, even diet roads over high mountain passes are far better, especially in snow. US air schedules are unbelievably superior. The only regular scheduled services, often in a YAK42, from Saratov are to Moscow, Sochi and some oil town in Siberia. Denver, a city of comparable size and separation has a substantial international airport with connections all over the US. Gazprom’s high pressure pipeline technical centre is in Saratov but they have their own airline (which flies to At Pete). I hesitate to drive in rural Russia. Russian driving standards are very bad, although much better than they were. In Colorado, it was easy to drive into the mountains and hike using easy maps and well marked trails.
Saratov has far better public transport in the city. Trains, trams, trolley buses in plenty.. However, the standard of comfort is very low. Politically controlled ticket charges are very cheap and cannot pay for adequate maintenance and refurbishment. Denver has far more businessman’s hotels. Boulder has more restaurants than Saratov.
I like to buy food in the market and prepare it myself. The centre of Saratov is very good for markets while food is in season. A lot comes from Central Asia along with drugs and a crime problem. Even so, I fell far safer in Saratov than Denver. Russia has reasonably tough gun laws. You are not worried about a mad gunman every time you turn a corner. (One of my projects involved a defense firm about half a mile from Columbine. I was in Colorado that day – admittedly Greeley). In Boise, people carried guns in the street and when the Mexicans from the potato farms turned up on Friday nights they were used at times. Regan, visiting as President, had to take cover under a restaurant table when a man armed with a shotgun walked past. Thank God for Canada to show the route to sanity. One day …
Hiring people is a bigger commitment immediately. I paid 35% of my wage bill as social taxes in Saratov. People are also hard to fire. In Boulder, I was the board member for a large multinational and the small firmmwas 5 times the size so I was less aware of the hire had fire issues but I strongly have the impression that it was relatively easy to fire someone in Colorado and we didn’t pay 35% payroll tax even if I don’t remember the exact amount. Business support services were readily available in both cities. That said, I still don’t trust the Saratov post office (when I first arrived, every Russia province had an independently incorporated postal!service – plus one international office in Moscow).
Before the revolution, Saratov was the third largest city on Russian (not imperial) territory. It has first to third places in foundation date for many high cultural institutions. The ballet company is better than anything in the UK. Opera not so good but I am from Wales. In Denver in my early days, I was in the hotel coffee shop opposite four “Indians” wearing buckskins and speaking a strange language. It turned out that Dances with Wolves premiered there that night (might have been the world premier?). And damn, I missed it. High culture is much easier to find in Saratov and performed as entertainment rather than a social signal. An unpretentious bar, serving Coors?, was easier in Colorado. There are bars in Saratov but they are much for couples and girls nights out than male drinking alone or in company. Neither place has anything approaching a German Stammtisch. I was reasonably regular at Jose Muldoon’s in Boulder.
Neither city is fit for much more than doing business for me. Boulder is too polished, although one of my ex bosses moved there from Minneapolis to open a ski shop in semiretirement. I would go to Vancouver. Spectacular scenery, enough rain to keep things green, no extremes of temperature, coping with multiculturism and British beer available. 35 minutes from the, pebbly, beach to the snowline.
If your idea of “incredible standard of living” is never been able to afford a house, and buying a Subaru Impreza while making $200K a year, then I don’t know what to tell you. In normal parts of the US, which is outside the Bay Area and NYC, $200K/year should allow you to buy a nice home, drive a nice car if you care, and have plenty of savings left over, if you don’t live beyond your means.
At least two of the above (buying a home and have plenty of savings) are not possible in Palo Alto with $200K/year.
Your brother lives in Menlo Park; median home price is $2.1M, let’s call it $2M for easy math. If you want to buy a home, you should put 20% ($400K) down, and have a $1.6M mortgage. To even qualify for that mortgage, you need to be making about $500K a year. When are you going to be able to accumulate $400K to put down, if you only make $200K?
Your brother is single, I assume, so he can live in a small apartment for which he still pays $2500 per month. If he had a family and had to rent a bigger place, he’d be looking at $5000+ (median rent in Menlo Park).
But if you think I am unrealistic in my expectations, prove me wrong. Move to Palo Alto, get a $200K/year job, and see how happy you’re going to be after the novelty wears off.
That’s right. On top of that, $200-250K is a VP of Engineering salary at a decently funded start-up. A director at Google might get that and more, but then they get burned out and still can barely afford their mortgages (or to see their kids, or rather kid).
Nope, every article/study I’ve seen claims that housing prices have been rising faster than inflation at least since 1940. The only question is by how much, not if.
With a family?
Agreed, I should have said decent wealth, or good savings.
I dunno, do you want to be a greeter at Wal-Mart when you’re 80? Are you going to be sharp enough to continue working in an intellectually-demanding job into your 80s?
Seriously? Isn’t it not enough that the armed forces have become the bastion of SJWism? You would want your son to risk losing life or limb to fight the wars of choice to benefit corporate interests? I’ve had higher opinion of you based on your prior posts, now you’re making me reconsider that.
” Most American pop culture is gangsta rap and the like”
True, pop culture in the U. S. is not what it used to be.
But in the 1950s-’80s when the U.S. was at the height of its
self-confidence and had a strong middle class, its pop culture
was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. One advantage
of living in a huge country with a 325+ million population
is that you can pick your own niche, and even that small niche
may have a potential fan base of 50 million people.
For someone older like me (I was born and raised in Poland
but have spent most of my adult life in a technical field at an
American university) the entire repertoire of American/British
pop music and films from the ’60s-’80s that I’m intimately
familiar with is available at a moment’s notice, and you can also throw in
20th century American literature from Hemingway, Fitzgerald, through
Henry Miller, Kerouac, Updike, Pynchon, etc That’s more than enough
for one lifetime. No wonder the U.S. is so navel-gazing. Its cultural output
is so vast that it barely notices that the rest of the world even exists.
When it comes to the latest stuff, I learn it from my students. Being
a university professor in America is like running a small country: you
have a budget, grants, and a battalion of assistants, both male and female.
The guys are typically into bands that nobody my age has heard of. My
female assistants (who often treat me like a father confessor and entrust
me sometimes with intimate details of their sex lives) tell me they are into
J-POP or K-POP because the U.S. music scene no longer provides them
with the romance that they crave. Some may follow bands like Phish but
that’s mostly to please their boyfriends. There is no better life in America
than being a college professor! Where else do you get 3 months of vacation
(although much of it is filled with research and conferences)? And in a technical
field you’re beyond politics because nobody can understand what it is that
you actually do – the jargon and the math are too impenetrable
He thinks everyone is a loser who doesn’t have wealth enough not to work in old age. He was complaining about having to bag his own groceries “like a loser”. So, in Thorfinsson’s world, most people are losers. He also needs to be reminded of his superior status at every opportunity, like standing idly while some loser is bagging his groceries.
I thought that’s what people call “retirement”, not having to work in old age. But apparently that’s for losers, so I thought maybe beign a greeter at Wal-Mart at 80 better suited his sensibilities.
In Russia college professor have a 2.5 month summer vacation, and monthly winter vacation.
From what I gather, he thinks you have to be wealthy enough not to work an ordinary job at middle age. So like you don’t really retire in the sense that you still look after your considerable investments after that, well into old age.
The exact length varies depending on the institution.
At my university we get 3 months off in summer (from
mid-May till mid-August) and about 3 weeks off between the
semesters in winter (from mid-December to roughly
January 7), so the vacation length appears very similar
in the U.S. and Russia.
In addition, at universities (but not at colleges) once you
get tenure ( meaning “nobody can fire you except for
moral turpitude, and I don’t have the energy for that anymore,”
to quote a line from a 1970s American movie) you can
apply for a sabbatical leave – typically one semester off
with full pay every 7 years. These are extremely competitive
but worth applying for if you, say, want to write a book
A $2500 apartment is $30,000 per year which is 15% of $200,000 and 23% of the after-tax figure of $130,000. People often spend @40% of their pay on housing to live in Coastal California.
In this Palo Alto scenario, this single guy would have $100,000 dollars a year to play with after paying taxes and rent. Insurance, car payments, food etc. will bring it down to say, $70,000. Splurge a little ($20K seems enough) and you still have $50,000 in the bank.
Why is this guy’s situation supposed to be hopeless?
This is true. A vivid example of the fantasy genre. In the USSR fantasy-literature did not exist. When the iron curtain fell, the Anglo-American fantasy was transferred, and people were reading them. Then began a rapid blossoming of the Russian fantasy that captured 2/3 of the market (which is great – in the ocean of fantasy- trash there are some really talented works).
But anyway to say that “Russia rejects American culture” is to say just the opposite of the truth.
Even more than a list of your favorite American books, I’d like to have a list of your favorite Russian fantasy books, particularly ones with a real Russian or (gasp!) Eurasian flavor. Please feel free to include also those written primarily for young people, since my Russian literary vocabulary is still under construction.
This is simply untrue.
http://observationsandnotes.blogspot.com/2011/07/housing-prices-inflation-since-1900.html
The Ecommunist also has a nice interactive chart breaking it down by metro area: https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/08/daily-chart-20
Residential real estate is an awful asset class.
Roommates are certainly not an option then, but this doesn’t rule out other “creative” housing arrangements. Of course finding a wife okay with such “creativity” would be a real challenge.
The loser advice given by most personal finance gurus is to have a 10% savings rate. This is achievable anywhere including Silicon Valley. And, frankly, this will result in a decent nest egg over time.
$15,000 (assuming a 25% tax bite) a year invested with 5% returns (a conservative assumption) will be worth a million dollars in 30 years.
Yes. Buffet and Munger are still working. Kirk Kerkorian worked into his 90s and dropped dead.
Do you also think I would live in a recreational vehicle in Silicon Valley?
That said, the armed forces are a reasonable option for many people. The risks one undertakes are considerably lower than those encountered in logging, and can be further reduced by tailoring one’s service and MOS.
Reiner Tor
It should be everyone’s goal (or at least everyone with a three digit IQ) to achieve financial independence, which means not having to work.
But this does not mean you should stop working. Experience tells us that men who stop working deteriorate rapidly. This is why I have contempt for retirement, and to be clear most retirees retired from life decades before formally resigning. “Most men die at 25, they are merely buried at 75.” -Benjamin Franklin
However, perhaps you change your work in the event you don’t enjoy the work you’re doing. I happen to love business, but I wouldn’t mind spending more time organizing blood drives for instance.
“You do much better with missiles, ships and other such iron crap”
That “iron crap” is what keeps you secure, unmolested an