Posted on 07/24/2014 9:00:20 PM PDT by canuck_conservative
... “They are people who have already made money and are now scared to lose it,” Paley said....
“I don’t share the opinion of 90 percent of the country: I feel like a foreigner here now so why not leave?” said Tatiana Konkova, a Russian literature teacher and singer, giving her last concert in Moscow this month....
The number of Russians emigrating in the last two years was some five times higher than in the two before Putin began a new six-year term in May 2012, official figures show....
Echoing the post-Soviet brain drain, sociologists say Russia is bleeding exactly the kind of people it needs to plug a skilled labor shortage and diversify the economy away from reliance on energy exports.
“We are losing the most educated, most active, most entrepreneurial people,” Lev Gudkov, director of the independent Moscow-based Levada Centre pollster. “The Kremlin sees this in a cynical way – as a way to let off steam.”
He estimated that three million Russians have left over the last decade, as many as in the first few years after the Soviet Union collapsed when Russia was in political and economic chaos....
Reasons for leaving vary. Corruption, red tape and allegedly crooked courts are driving the exodus among entrepreneurs. Young people seek higher education and job opportunities. Families want better health care and schools. Some hanker after greater freedoms....
“It’s strange but we have more state officials now than the Soviet administration for a population that is two times smaller,” Gorshkov said....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...
Demographically—arguably the only measure that matters—the Putin regime has been a disaster for Russia.
When people begin voting with their feet you know you have serious problems!
We are seeing many US corporations voting with their feet now. It’s the insane 35% corporate tax rate! That tax rate should be ZERO! And the tax rate on capital gains should be ZERO! We are supposed to be capitalists..not communists :-(
Our tax base income should come from consumption taxes and not income taxes. No IRS and no need to file income taxes is what we should have.
When I look into Putin’s eyes I am a bit frightened I must say. Ditto in spades for Obama’s eyes.
Many pay nothing.
Move to Antarctica?
Don't a lot of us conservative Americans feel like foreigners in our own country also?
~Demographically—arguably the only measure that matters—the Putin regime has been a disaster for Russia.~
LOL. You have certainly missed centuries of feudal despotism, seven decades of full communism and a decade of gang wars there. By all objective accounts Putin’s regime is the best thing happened there in millenias.
Also the overbearing laws and government regulations. Its to the point where they basically tell you who to hire, how you make, distribute, price, and advertise something. You basically have hundreds of thousands in the US getting paid with tax dollars to watch the few that still have a job that actually produces wealth.
I spoke with a Russian woman tonight. She has been here 15 years and is very thankful. “More opportunity, but you have to be willing to work hard.”
~I spoke with a Russian woman tonight. She has been here 15 years and is very thankful. “More opportunity, but you have to be willing to work hard.”~
I’m there too, and couldn’t agree more. Sharp contrast to communist and post-communist Yeltsinist mob rule before him.
There are issues for sure and it would likely change for worse to some degree (sanctions etc) but I’m certainly better stick to Putin than any commie or liberal counterpart which will certainly emerge if something would happen to Putin.
Gosh that sounds familiar...
Try collecting one without a massive black market. Imagine the government involving itself in every transaction, from street vendors to roadside markets.
So the old and the lower educated and skilled will stay, like Cuba. I know his admirers here on this site idolize him, but autocracy (President for Life Putin) by any other name still stinks the same.
That’s true for the multinational companies but not true for the smaller companies. Smaller US based companies can’t move their money around the world to avoid taxation. So instead they take it on the chin and are at a disadvantage to their international competitors.
Yeah, he’s done better than the communists. Congratulations to him. He’s a genius. Now, all the looted money he and his cronies have is money taken from the mass of Russian people.
You could have a “Pray for Putin” thread. I’m sure you’d have a lot of Putinistas sharing the love for him.
Hey, don’t turn things upside down. I’m not talking he is an angel but I think my idea is clear. You certainly have no idea what is it to live under commies or under mob rule.
My wife (who has 4 Master's and a Ph.D.) voted with her feet 10 years ago and has never looked back.
Where do you live now?
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