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Russia, The Sick Man of Europe (A nation facing demographic crisis)
The Public Interest ^ | Winter, 2005 | Nicholas Eberstadt

Posted on 01/03/2005 3:16:55 AM PST by jalisco555

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To: jalisco555

This piece gives an insight into the crisis of health and will in Russia. Coupled with an economy largely controlled by what might be cinsidered criminal elements, Russia is in serious trouble. Instead of progress after communism there is decline.


It is for these reasons that I give Putin a break. He must establish order within the chaos and must crack down to do so.

To build a functionong society, he must reorder a nonfunctioning free society. Imposition of harsh order is the way to exterminate the present thuggish evildoers who have gained control of the economy and exert strong control over daily life.

The retreat to strong arm governence is the only way to accomplish the task. The price of a free society is reduction of freewheeling.



21 posted on 01/03/2005 5:04:04 AM PST by bert (Don't Panic.....)
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To: eluminate
Hopefully the birth rate will increase just by how much is the question. The most optimistic I could get is 1.8-9 in 5 years maybe 2.5 in 10 if a baby boom occured in the next 5 years it would stimulate a revival but I cant see anything happening except I noticed the decrease in the age women give birth decreasing ergo women start having children earlier which is semi-odd.

My Russian wife took two trips back to Volgograd this year. She remarked, "I have never seen so many pregnant ladies in Russia." I realize all to well that is a very small sample, but it is her observation. Hopefully the facts will later prove it to be true.
22 posted on 01/03/2005 5:23:31 AM PST by GarySpFc (Sneakypete, De Oppresso Liber)
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To: Hunble

"Eventually, Russia will become one of the most important financial powers on Earth, but it will take decades for them to achieve that potential."

How any rational person can somehow blame Bush for the self-inflicted disasters of the land and people who brought the world Leninism and Stalinism and 70 years of a Communist killing machine is unfathomable! And what is even more astonishing is how anyone who knows anything about Russian history can claim what you've stated above. Such a statement is beyond belief!


23 posted on 01/03/2005 5:37:46 AM PST by bowzer313
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To: bowzer313
I blamed President, if you had read my post.

However, when Russia obtains true freedom, they will become an important financial power. America after independance from England is the historical example that they can learn from. However, as with America, it was a slow and difficult road for a long time.

24 posted on 01/03/2005 5:54:11 AM PST by Hunble
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To: Hunble

blamed President CLINTON, if you had read my post.


25 posted on 01/03/2005 5:54:44 AM PST by Hunble
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To: jalisco555
Isn't this the state of affairs the Zero Population Growth mavens (now "Population Connection") have been promoting for the past 35 years?

Are we now seeing that utopian ideas are somehow faulted?

26 posted on 01/03/2005 6:06:01 AM PST by Gritty ("...a woman's 'right to choose' what? To have her baby harmed by an assailant?-Rich Lowry)
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To: SkyPilot
But there is a deeper problem. Communism drove religion from the land with oppression and murder. Today, there are very few vestiges of Christianity left, and as a result, Russians have no moral compass.

Amen. Good point.

27 posted on 01/03/2005 6:09:26 AM PST by geedee (History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.)
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To: Gritty
Isn't this the state of affairs the Zero Population Growth mavens (now "Population Connection") have been promoting for the past 35 years?

Ironic, isn't it. We've gone from population explosion to population implosion in one generation.

28 posted on 01/03/2005 6:10:35 AM PST by jalisco555 ("The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." W. B. Yeats)
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To: Hunble

OK, so you meant ex-President Caligula. I'm sorry I got that wrong. But, still, my point was that you can't blame anyone but the Russian people themselves for allowing the Soviet atrocities to promulgate unabated for over 70 years. And you can't blame anyone but the Russians for the killing machine that was the Soviet Union!

"America after independance from England is the historical example that they can learn from."

I agree with your point here, but world history for the past two-hundred years seems to corroborate the view that NO nation uses the US as a model for governance or organization! There seems to be no other people on earth who value American principles of individual liberty and economic freedom the way that Americans do. NO ONE! ANYWHERE! After all, for over two hundred years every other country has had the opportunity to implement some sort of system that mimics American society. But all we seem to witness are governments and peoples around the world who vilify, ridicule, and lambaste America and Americans at every opportunity!


29 posted on 01/03/2005 6:18:56 AM PST by bowzer313
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Bookmark


30 posted on 01/03/2005 6:44:42 AM PST by redgolum
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To: jalisco555
"Perhaps they are hoping to expand their way out of this crisis."
But how could one hold the expanded whole with fewer and fewer people? Holding a vampiria together is a labor-intensive proposition.
31 posted on 01/03/2005 6:48:41 AM PST by GSlob
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To: jalisco555
We've gone from population explosion to population implosion in one generation.

Well, sort of.

Populations in many Muslim countries and third world nations (but, I repeat myself) are exploding.

32 posted on 01/03/2005 6:58:53 AM PST by Gritty ("Kyoto is hopeless in terms of delivering what the planet needs"-Peter Roderick,Friends of the Earth)
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To: GarySpFc

You are truly BLESSED,
A woman of SCRIPTURES is truly above any price.


33 posted on 01/03/2005 7:29:22 AM PST by cooldown3
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To: dasboot
The Russian women guide:

http://rwguide.com/

(This site has an excellent forum with lots of information for guys interested in eastern european women)

34 posted on 01/03/2005 7:39:13 AM PST by Decombobulator
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To: Gritty
Populations in many Muslim countries and third world nations (but, I repeat myself) are exploding.

I've read that even there birth rates are down from previous generations. It's just that they have such a young population that it will take a long time to really notice this. Same is true in Mexico.

35 posted on 01/03/2005 7:58:40 AM PST by jalisco555 ("The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." W. B. Yeats)
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To: jalisco555

leave it to a scholar to write 3000 words about a simple problem. Putin and the KGA gangsters have taken control of the country. People live in fear. Who wants to bring children into a world with no future. Immigrants come to America to get rich - YUKOS proves that if you get rich the State will steal it. That is the street wise reason the population is in decline. NO FUTURE


36 posted on 01/03/2005 8:14:53 AM PST by q_an_a
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Funny how we have people in the US patting themselves on the back for deciding not to have children because "the world is so overpopulated," but meanwhile the largest single country in the world (by area) is facing extinction.


37 posted on 01/03/2005 12:53:30 PM PST by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: NoControllingLegalAuthority

That's what I'm thinking.


38 posted on 01/03/2005 1:23:18 PM PST by FastCoyote
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To: bowzer313

"I agree with your point here, but world history for the past two-hundred years seems to corroborate the view that NO nation uses the US as a model for governance or organization! There seems to be no other people on earth who value American principles of individual liberty and economic freedom the way that Americans do."

Actually, only a small percentage of Americans value American traditional ideals anymore! A lot of us pay lip service to self-reliant freedom but are quick to complain that the government doesn't do enough for people. There are very few who could actually cope with life as it was lived when we truly valued freedom.


39 posted on 01/03/2005 2:31:03 PM PST by RipSawyer ("Embed" Michael Moore with the 82nd airborne.)
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To: RipSawyer; geedee; bowzer313

well for one as I stated previously there is an orthodox revival in Russia. Also it begins to re-establish itself as the religion of the state and some things which were done such as returning all church lands confiscated by the Soviets. This might aid the birth rate a bit with moral values and familian focus reaffirmed.

Most nations use US as model Russia does it as well but you have to take things like laws or others which work in US and adapt them to working in Russia for example. Ergo they recently(about 6 months ago) created the FDIC which insures deposits in banks for about $3500 (around there dont remember the exact amount) while in US its 100k. And also forced all banks who take deposits to have it (loads of complains at the time). About 5% of the banks were striped of the ability to function and some went under, also some people lost money on the whole the FDIC thing might not have been a bad idea and some suffering had to be burdened.

The biggest problem Russia is facing is the real estate sector (severe problem). If it ever gets reformed semi-decently there will be an insane amount of growth and potential. Simply speaking not enough housing and repeat it a million times and other things. They have been trying to index real estate taxes to .4% of market price instead of 2% of at cost this created an insane amount of anger but might not be a bad thing. Basicly if you bought an apartment for 20k 15 years ago and its not 200k you payd 2% of 20k as a tax.

Hard to find improvements most of the news is negative and sometimes even what you think is a negative isn't that bad actually.


40 posted on 01/03/2005 2:58:33 PM PST by eluminate
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