- Russia ranks 30th among our trading partners. China ranks first. We do $635B worth of business with China every year and $24B with Russia. Ireland is more than twice the size of Russia in terms of American trade.
- Russian per capita GDP is about $27,400 which places them 74th in the world. By comparison, ours is more than double theirs at $59,800.
- Russia's population is declining by about 700,000 a year.
- About 20% of their roads are unpaved.
- Russia has all kinds of problems with its military, not the least of which is their lousy equipment. In the Middle East's military test zone, the Israelis regularly walk all over other countries armed with expensive, Russian junk.
In short, they can't project power, their economy is stalled and their population is declining. I would bet that Russians worry more about whether or not their cars will start in the morning than who is going to be elected president of the US. The place is a trash heap and yet our media screams "Russia! Russia! Russia!" regularly.
I guess that beats trying to figure out why the Normals aren't voting for the Elites' chosen candidates.
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| Only in Russia. |
I think it is a residue of the Cold War. "The Russians" were the big, bad villain for so long that people still reflexively assume that they are out to get us and still represent a credible threat.
ReplyDeletePeople in general seem very ready to keep reacting to yesterday's problems even after they cease to be credible, rather than anticipating tomorrow's problems before they get dangerous. This may be the death of us one of these days.
I would agree with that except for the fact that the people screaming, "RUSSIA!" are the same ones who told us Russia was no big deal in the Cold War and we could live in peace and harmony with them.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I can think is that they can't come up with another villain to blame except China and they all get paychecks from China.