• Brainsploosh@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s hard to gauge the veracity of this during the ongoing information warfare, but one detail struck me as funny:

    Around 20 million people in Russia — or 14% of the population — are on the brink of poverty or already in poverty, said Lipsits.

    This is supposedly after two years of wars and sanctions.

    Official US gov statistics puts the US peacetime number at 11,5 - 12,4 %

    The official poverty rate in 2022 was 11.5 percent, with 37.9 million people in poverty. … The Supplemental Poverty Measure in 2022 was 12.4 percent.

    I wonder if this is meant as a disinformation piece?

    • Hyperreality@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      There’s poverty and there’s Poverty. A quick google suggests Russia and the World Bank define poverty in Russia as having an income of under 10,000 rubles per month. Roughly $110.

      I don’t think people in the west can grasp what true poverty looks like. We’re talking selling your kids, eating tree bark or even cannibalism as was surprisingly widespread during the Cultural Revolution.

      Russia’s not that bad, especially the larger cities, but some parts of Russia are still really deprived as they never fully recovered from the collapse of the USSR.

      I am however surprised that the number’s only 14%. I googled and the number was similar a few years ago.

    • 768@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Are the stated poverties in the US and Russia of the same poverty definition? If the instrument is for example relative poverty, a reduction of affluence for everyone (eg through reduction of GDP) is not trivially comparable.

      I wonder if there’s an instrument that combines poverty and debt sustainability as a measure for the sustainability of a society’s access to resources.

      • Fades@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Nah they just wanted to vent emotions instead of actually thinking thru the bullshit they posted.

        It is most definitely not the same calculation by far

    • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I think the bigger indicator of how bad things are in Russia is that during the initial invasion, Russian troops were confused and delighted by such modern machines as running toilets and washing machines.

      • Joncash2@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        But that’s the point. Russia was doing terrible anyway. Is this new 14% poverty rate any worse than when the war started and they were stealing toilets to begin with.

        I mean I have no idea, but this article doesn’t show evidence one way or the other.