[jb6]

If you look strictly at GDP then yes, but then again, all that means is you're taking rubles and transferring them into dollars and since the dollar fell 15% vs the ruble in the past year, does that mean all Russians are 15% richer? That's the joke way of economics. The reality is Purchasing Power Parity. That's when you compare a basket of basic goods and figure out equivalently what the local salary is worth.

In America, a dollar will buy you a candy bar and that's about it and not even the king sized one at that. In Russia a dollar, 27.8 rubles (two years ago it was 33 rubles) will still buy you a loaf of bread (and good bread at that not the wet chemical dow that we get) and 1.5 kg of potatoes. Thus the average family is earning 280 dollars per month and lives normally off of that.

Further, by CIA World Book calculations, Russia's PPP value stands at 1.28 trillion, making it the 6th largest economy and those are 2003 estimates. With a 6.9% growth rate this year, that sets it at: $1.368.

Economics is more then just looking at dollar value of someone, dollar is a relative issue, especially as a fiat and in effect unbacked piece of paper.

[monday]

"Thus the average family is earning 280 dollars per month and lives normally off of that."

lol.... sure, as long as normally means lots of potatoes and cabbage, and a cramped soviet era apartment where three generations live in two rooms.