Quote:
Originally Posted by woj
GDP per capita for Russia is something like $9000/year ($750/month)...
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GDP per capita for Russia is
$25,411 / year, but as I said above it's stupid to calculate it in USD, since it's an internal product (we use rubles here). Also there are two things you don't aware of:
1) GDP is not that you earn but also it's what you spend. For example, the States spend a lot to their useless and overpriced army. This money inflates your GDP (the US GDP per capita is 55,805 which is 2x times more than in Russia) but it doesn't make your life better, because you just waste this money, not earn it.
2) Russian GDP is an absolutely useful number which has no relation to the real life. It doesn't include "black salaries", "откаты" (I really can't find the proper English translation/explanation) etc. Most of the money here circulate in "grey" and "black" zones. Even when you buy apartments or a house, you pay with cash (yes I mean a real case with money like in all those movies about mafia). This cash is not documented somehow and is not included into the official GDP. I'll try to show you a very simple example. When you want to move from one district of your city to the another one you simple call a taxi. Do you know that
most of Russians do? They just raise a hand, stop a car (not a taxi, just a random car) and pay to a driver in cash for delivery. You can't do this in the States because work w/o a license and tax evasion are the crimes there. Here in Russia it's a usual thing which everybody does.
Once I've stopped a car of Russian parliament member, and his driver (he was alone) took me to the place I wanted ;)
Quote:
Originally Posted by woj
so yea, obviously everyone in Russia makes $1000 in "white" salary
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Not in Russia. $1030 is the average
official salary in Moscow only. In other places it's about 2x times less. And yes, it's just a "white" part of it. The "black" part is always paid in cash (that's why it's "black"), so it can't be included into the officials stats. To be honest, even your colleagues don't know how much you receive "in envelope". Why we say "envelope"? That's because you really get the most part of your salary in the paper envelope so nobody couldn't know what's inside. It's illegal but it's also a usual practice here.