I am writing this article based on the results of my trip to small Russian cities, namely: Penza, Samara, and Novosibirsk. It’s a depressing impression, especially after Moscow. Poverty and dirt. At the same time, there is absolutely no feeling that they are inhabited by stupid and lazy people deserving such a life. Quite the opposite, “seems like they are not idlers and could live differently.” What’s the matter? Why, working two shifts, do people in the Russian third city barely make ends meet, while their streets are dirty and full of potholes? How are they different from Muscovites or, say, residents of Zurich?
The answer is obvious: they steal! However, it’s not that simple.
Both in Penza and Zurich, very similar people live, most of them have eight working hours a day to produce goods and services. Each Swiss produces approximately $65,000 worth of goods and services per year, while the average Russian produces slightly less—only $29,000. Twice as less. Have you been to Zurich? How about Penza? The Swiss autobahn and the road from Penza’s airport to its center—that’s not “twice as much,” it’s two big differences.
Apparently, the issue is not actually idleness and laziness, but that they “steal.” But who? Under the cover of night, robbers break into Penza’s storerooms with enviable regularity, steal all the values created by hardworking people, and disappear in an unknown direction. Unlucky Penza residents wake up in the morning, discover broken locks, sigh, return to lathes and sewing machines, and continue working. And this repeats year after year.
No, they don’t steal like that. The robbers of Penza don’t need the night to take a big part of the GDP created by its residents. They act openly during the day, without much restraint or fear. Because they are the residents of Penza. More precisely, its best representatives.
The cause of dirt and poverty is not theft, given the high GDP level, but the unbalanced distribution of earned resources. $65,000 earned by a Swiss in a year will mostly be spent on himself, his family, and on repairing the road in front of his house. Some will go to officials, capitalists, and other idlers who do not create the product themselves, but only own the means of production, capital, and land. However, this part will be significantly less than what the average Russian gives to his owners.
At the beginning of the restructuring, a film was made called Jack Vosmyorkin - “American”, whose hero tried to build a business in young Soviet Russia. On his land plot, he planted tobacco, his family grew it, and he decided to start an advertising campaign by giving away free cigars to his fellow villagers “as a sample.” The entire village smoked the free promotional product with great pleasure, but flat-out refused to buy the product, mainly citing that “neighbors don’t do that.” Their categorical outrage was Jack’s desire to profit from his unfortunate comrades—fellow poor people.
Then something very interesting happened. Jack, with no means of sustenance and being rejected by the market, gave his tobacco for next to nothing to the local kulak Skorokhodov, who ground it into snuff and started selling it to the same poor people, who immediately lined up. There were no more protests.
Why is that? What is the difference between Jack, who grew the tobacco, and Skorokhodov, who just resold it? Why were people only willing to receive free gifts from Jack, while no one had any doubts that Skorokhodov needed to be paid?
Something similar is happening in modern Russia, Ukraine, and many other countries, where people are accustomed to rich and all-powerful owners who “rightfully” own the majority of all products and services that these people create. In other words, the whole city of Penza works for a small number of people who are called thieves in the opposition press, but whose interests the entire city will rush to defend if their right to own the city is ever questioned.
It’s not about stealing. No one is stealing anything, although technically the actions of officials can almost always be classified as such. The issue lies in the natural and historically inherited tendency of the entire population towards social inequality and material injustice.
Is it possible to change this formula and bring our consciousness closer to that of an average Swiss, for whom a wealthy fellow villager thanks to him is not a misunderstanding or a threat - an interesting question. However, a much more interesting question is - is it necessary?
Maybe let Jack return to his America, and we here are more accustomed to working for the Skorokhodovs?
Translated by ChatGPT gpt-3.5-turbo/42 on 2024-04-20 at 14:37
