Russians are a dying population according to this fascinating but grim article.
Russia is rapidly losing population. Its people are succumbing to one of the world's fastest-growing AIDS epidemics, resurgent tuberculosis, rampant cardiovascular disease, alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, suicide and the lethal effects of unchecked industrial pollution.
In addition, abortions outpaced births last year by more than 100,000. An estimated 10 million Russians of reproductive age are sterile because of botched abortions or poor health. The public healthcare system is collapsing. And many parents in more prosperous urban areas say they can't afford homes large enough for the number of children they'd like to have.
RANZ Update
2 hours ago
4 comments:
The free market is certainly doing its thing in Russia, isn't it?
I'm generally a free market proponent, but always question evangelical free market supporters about situations such as these.
It seems "in time" (after writing off many, many lives in the process), the market will "correct" this.
Belt,
To make the comparison one would need to know the statistics under the communist regime versus open slather policy in Russia now.
Would also be interesting to see the statistics for the breakaway republics like Estonia or Lithuania to see if it is a "Russia" problem or a free market problem.
I would not be suprised if this has been going on for a long time.
The interesting thing about "the market" is that it is expected to start meeting demand. There's always a delay, and sometimes an uncomfortably long one which can be expensive in dollars/roubles as well as human suffering, but eventually the market does seem to to do what it needs to do.
Question remains - how long to wait? Is any intervention more costly than none at all?
The Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia will all overtake NZ in terms of GDP per capita in the next decade or so - all went straight to the free market.
The Russian Problem is the same as the African Problem - Corruption.
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