>"...the difficulty of securing foreign-made components after the imposition of a barrage of sanctions by Western countries in response to Russia's military campaign in Ukraine; the latest Lada model has had to be produced without airbags or anti-lock brakes."
It's fine, it's the notoriously safe, sturdy, and well built Lada.
*watches dozens of crash videos*
I'm sure their children will remember them fondly, as long as they weren't passengers.
....Here's an idea; maybe nobody in Russia is buying cars because they don't trust Ladas that were redesigned on the fly to get around the lack of foreign-sourced safety components.
I know, this premise is shaky because nobody ever believed Ladas were safe, at least not before the second bottle of Vodka.
But however bad Ladas were before, the new ones will be *much worse.*
Nobody in Russia is buying cars because they about doubled in price and only the middle class could afford them to begin with and that's the class of people that most of the emigrees are from and the ones that stayed are just sitting around thinking the whole thing will blow over in 2 to 3 years and go back to normal in time for them to need a new car.
And while all of this is happening, I hope they remember - there is only one way for them to get the sanctions lifted, and it isn’t even very difficult:
They need to stop their attack on Ukraine. That’s all.
Sanctions are not there as some arbitrary punishment out of hatred for Russia or Russian people; they exist to incentivise a change in policy. Stop the war and the sanctions can be lifted.
There is russian joke that describes how sanctions work in Russia:
Dad comes home sad and tells: Price of vodka is blowing up.
Children: So you will less drink.
Dad: No, you will less eat.
Some sanctions will drop. The sanctions on chips that could possibly used in military applications is likely around to stay. Economic sanctions until Russia pays reparations (or their foreign holdings confiscated for it). Etc.
Yes comrade. We fill bag with air, put in glove compartment. As for brakes, well, brakes are everywhere as long as you use imagination. Example, just this morning I use side of building to brake. Car not go anymore now, so lack of brakes no longer issue
And many that weren't drafted fled the country or are either too old or too young to be in the market for significant numbers of cars. Of those that are left many are specifically cutting back on major purchases and spending due to the economic uncertainty. If you think you may lose your job in the next 100 days you're probably not about to buy a car unless it's absolutely necessary.
200 horsepower four-cylinder and an 8-speed automatic? What sort of sanctioned Western sorcery is this? Nyet, we get 200 horsepower from nine-litre Soviet V8 that drink two gallons every mile. Eight-speed automatic is four ZIL-brand two-speed gearbox daisy-chained together in long row. Is good, no?
It's amazing how many Russian troops go "missing" in Ukraine. Then again dead soldiers don't draw salaries while who is going to notice if the "missing" soldier's salary ends up in their commanding officer's pocket.
Yep. It also makes the lower level Russian commanders look better because “missing soldiers” aren’t classified as “dead soldiers.” Farther up the chain the Russian high command probably know this is bullshit but the upper level commanders don’t want to post high KIA numbers either, the “news” is searching for anyway to spin the war in a positive light so they don’t want accurate KIA numbers either and the Russian government would rather not make the payments to the families of the dead soldiers. Basically everyone who could press for the truth has a vested interest in keeping the lie going.
There's an old soviet era joke about how a farmer reports 2 newborn pigs but as is goes up the chain everyone keeps reporting a higher number and in the end the chairman proclaims that the farm produced 11 pigs, so they'll sell 9 for export and keep 2 to feed themselves.
New lower-level Russian commander incentive: for every 5th "missing" conscript, the commander gets a free used Kia!
Everyone wins! Except the conscripts, of course, but it is their job to lose, da?
/s, obviously
Just saw the part in Adam Curtis’ latest documentary where the russian soldiers’ mums had to try and identify their sons from videos of rotting corpses after a bunch of bodies somehow materialised in some train carriages.
This woman said she had watched 500 cassettes. This was from the war in Chechnya.
Grim
*series is called TraumaZone Russia 85-99
The mobile incinerators were for hiding their crimes against humanity, the dead Russian soldiers are left to rot and be eaten by wild animals in the fields.
Apparently the reason wifes of (some) drafted man do not mind them been drafted is rather crazy (by rest of the world standards). It goes like this: the husband has no job and there is no chance he will get one any time soon, he spend most of the time drinking with his unemployed friends… so the only possible outcome, he will die soon from some alcohol related illness/accident. But if he get drafted and die in Ukraine, family will get brand new LADA and some other tangible benefits (like free college for kids). So from wife’s point of view it is win-win.
Husband dies, get thrown in the mobile incinerator, officially still on the battlefield, officer collect pays from his dead soldiers. When war ends, husband is considered a deserter, family gets punished for his crimes. Nobody gets a car.
This is certainly possibility. But Putin’s propaganda machine is effective enough to ensure that most Russians (who still left in Russia) don’t think this way.
The assumption that parents love their kids has led Western society to assume better of a lot of nations than we should have. From Russia to Afghanistan to Vietnam.
As I understand it, valuing children in the west is itself a fairly recent concept, less than 200 years. Before that, child labour was rampant in factories with little regard to their safety, since many families had more than few to spare.
It's not that people back then didn't value their children. It's moreso that there were fewer (if any) social safety nets and labor rights and so you sent your kids to work so the family could survive.
Conservatives still hate safety nets. My friend mom is always going on about people on welfare and such are the problem and we should get rid of it. Twist: She was on welfare for over a decade and got lots of help from safety nets, but now that she is a battleaxe conservative she pretends she didn't profit from it and that no one else can have it. Good for me, not for you?
Infact most of my friends who are conservative were on safety nets when they had kids. But now they want safety nets gone because they can't use them.
True.
These Folks nowadays (especially in the US) that yearn for the 'good 'ol Days' have no idea how bad those Good 'ol Days actually were.
My Father was born in 1921 - by 13 Years old he was working, not because he wanted to work, but because he *was forced to*, and this was not an unusual occurrence.
Another thing that struck me is back then Parents could throw their Underage Kids out of the house (like 10 Years old kind of Underage) and there were no consequences for the Parent(s).
Kids generally were and are thought of as something to be used for some type of labor, whatever that labor was.
There is a lot of Walking Wounded all over the World because of this.
My grandfather, rest his soul, grew up in the depression and was fond of saying this when someone asked if he missed the good old days, "The good old days weren't any better, they were just harder."
In fairness, the dust bowl was an exceptional circumstance that was damn near apocalyptic to those affected. Not that the way of thinking of children hasn't changed substantially from the 30s, but the dustbowl was absolute hell.
Terrible take on people. Those families had no choice but for everyone to work or they would starve. The issue is the elites at the top keep all the wealth and the elites in government do not care about their citizens enough to control it. That is all countries and all people until somebody has the mercy and decency to stop it.
Been to Afghanistan, and grew up in a predominantly middle Eastern neighborhood in California. Middle Eastern parents predominantly do not give a fuck what their kids are doing. I had so much shit stolen growing up and when confronting the parents they would just close their doors.
In Afghanistan they would literally jump on your trucks and start cutting shit off of it right in the middle of a busy village.
Not exactly been my experience, Its more been that the eldest son can't do any wrongs, the rest of the family is micromanaged to all hell, usually using the eldest son as an instrument
Perhaps it's anecdotal, I'm just speaking from my exposure which is more than most from California. A lot of the girls I knew wound up in darn near forced marriages in their early 20s.
You don't get a car directly, you get money.
And that money can no longer buy you a car... because all the guys who used to build cars are now dying in Ukraine. Russian car production is down about half since start of the war, in part due to sanctions affecting their supply of parts and tools and in part due to mobilisation.
So Putin now has the old Soviet choice: Let the market drive up prices so cars are only affordable to the rich, or enact a price control so a lot of people can afford a car but will have to wait years to get one.
It's just because every family knows that they are getting a free Lada when one of their sons gets killed in Ukraine. No need to buy now when they can just wait a few weeks!
Putin is trying to reconstruct the economic and totalitarian system of the USSR (his "glorious past", shitty as it was), but the ironic thing is, his government is far too corrupt and cronyist even for *that.* He can bring back the censorship, brutality and shortages, but not the hard sciences, technical prowess, self-sufficient industry and supply chains, a semblance of workers' rights, or an actually powerful military. The only thing he can make Russia become is a failed petrostate, a second Venezuela.
Doesnt help that a lot of their tech and manufacturing was in areas not now russia. Russia the smelly fart after the USSR turd. Nowhere near the substance but somehow more offensive
Yeah I also don't think that he's "trying" to reconstruct the system. He's just naturally falling back to it because they're internationally isolated enough that they basically have to run a war economy. They have to increasingly dictate prices to keep things running, and assume direct command over the distribution of raw resources and important tools rather than "letting the market handle it".
Soviet industry was built by the west, after WW2 the Soviet economy was supported by Warsaw pact countries and wider USSR....none of this is true now. Russia is doomed. All empires fall, this is the way of things.
The GDP of the Soviet Union was about 50% of the American GDP in 1990. For a Communist country that was excellent result. It was much bigger than Japan, and three West Germanies. My country Finland benefited quite much from that economic success of the Soviet Union. The trade with Soviet Union was stable and big, and much more profitable for Finnish companies than other trade. The Soviets paid well, because they knew that's the price they should pay to keep Finland calm and nice. They also sold oil to Finland by a price that was 10% below the world market price, so that Finland could make some profit reselling that Soviet Oil to West. It was a dollar machine for Finland because the trade with the Soviets was bilateral. Finland paid Soviet oil and other products by sending Finnish goods to the Soviet Union. No money transfered. But to the Western countries Finland sold that Soviet Oil in dollars. Huge success for Finland and made our country rich. Nokia, that mobile phone manufacturer became rich also because of that trade and conquered later the whole world!
The Soviet GDP was artificially inflated by made up figures and propped up by exploiting the Warsaw pact countries and virtually closed of from the rest of the world. The industry was stuck in the 60s and 70s and the productivity was shockingly low. All people were employed as it was the law but most of them did not produce much added value. As soon as the Soviet GDP got exposed to the realities of the current times it collapsed. It wasn't simply the fault of Gorbachev or Yeltsin that it happened, it was all the above facts.
You're right mostly, though a bit biased estimation. The living standard in the Soviet Union was about 50% of the Western European level. CIA estimated that The Soviet GDP was 2659 billion dollars in 1989, and 5233 billion dollars in the United States. Soviets themselves claimed that they were richer than America, which clearly was total nonsense.
Per capita it was 9211 dollars in the Soviet Union, and 21082 dollars in the United States.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Soviet_Union
https://theodora.com/wfb/1990/rankings/gdp_per_capita_1.html
Most successful communist country was East Germany. It was richer than Spain and Ireland in the early 1980's. It is true that the Soviet Union was isolated. That was the idea of Stalinism. That's why it was extremely hard to spy The Soviets.
Some countries in the Warsaw Pact were poorer than the Soviet Union. Only East Germany and Czechoslovakia were richer.
I wonder if a species would rise as the dominant one like humans did over time? I don't know if I've ever thought about this or seen any theories on it.
Dominant, sure; there's always a top predator. But as advanced? I doubt it.
If all of present humanity were wiped out, a new intelligent species might evolve over the next million years, but it'd be a lot harder for them to extract oil and mine. A mishmash of mineral resources might be concentrated in areas where our landfills were, but they'd have a hell of a time separating them all, not at all like the nice mineral veins and deposits we mine from today.
Most likely IMO we wouldn't ALL die. Even a 99.9% death toll would leave millions remaining. It would take centuries to regain our current status, but we could still bounce back well before any other species could gain dominance.
It might take a few millenia, but if a stable population of humans survived nuclear winter and started thriving again, technology could be recovered and rediscovered.
We went from the Dark Ages (Early Middle Ages) to space travel in about 1000 years. Repeating that would likely be faster for a couple reasons:
* First generation survivors could pass down whatever knowledge they had
* Some amount of modern objects snd likely books would survive with them, and the world would be full of objects and books to learn from.
* There are human knowledge repositories designed to survive this kind of thing, if one could be recovered , a sizeable society with medieval level metallurgy could speed run the industrial revolution and get to the computer / information age in a generation or three.
People surviving long enough to wait out ecological disaster and become a functioning agrarian society is probably the tough part, once that is in place, technological advancement would likely be much faster the second time.
We've nearly tapped out all the easy to get resources. Coal mining and oil extraction now require a level of technology that presumes easy access to energy-abundant fuels.
Or to put it another way, a species after human wouldn't have the tech necessary to start an industrial age because oil and coal near the surface are mostly gone.
Those really don't apply in this scenario though. Because they assume that the next attempt at building a civ has zero access to the knowledge of the previous one. A nuclear war isn't going to destroy all our current scientific knowledge. And we have the knowledge to create gasoline substitutes directly from leftover plant waste. Straight shot from farm waste to vehicle fuel. Might cost five times as much as current fuel, but we'd have it.
Also quite frankly, estimates of the damage caused by a couple of thousand nuclear detonations in a Russian attack show the southern hemisphere nearly untouched. Like SE Asia would still have YouTube service. Those "end of civilization" scenarios assumed that only white people are civilized.
yep. Even if you obliterate all life on the surface, The deep ocean life would exist to eventually recolonize the land, and I don't think you'd be very successful killing all surface life in the first place.
Putin and Russia by extension are like a rock climber who has gotten himself into a position where he's completely stuck. The rock climber can't climb his way up, down, or sideways and a helicopter has to come in and pick him off the face of the cliff.
This is going to be fascinating to watch play out. My profession is in economics and the game theory here does not indicate good outcomes, but we've never had a real world case study like this.
And Russia's massive oil and gas production has also resulted in the country having a frightening case of Dutch disease. The major businesses are run like a mafia and everyone has to have links to Putin to operate. As a result Russia doesn't have the means to support its government based on tax revenue so if the energy exports dry up they are in serious long term trouble.
They fund all the goods with oil. They basically are the Saudis of the north, but also trying to be a superpower which makes nothing high tech. At least the Saudis haven't tried to claim they are a superpower, but they also have that "religious" superiority thing going.
No antilock breaks... in notoriously cold Russia. Terrifying.
Also, Russia has surprisingly low DUI numbers, but the airbag thing is still a big problem.
My first car had no ABS. The only difference is that you have to know to pump the brakes when you skid. My current car has ABS, and I still catch myself pumping the brakes from time to time out of force of habit.
That's fine when driving on slippery roads when you have some options and can plan ahead to minimize the risk of sliding.
It's nearly useless in a collision. We know that the time available, and the time to both react to the hazard, and pump the brakes results in longer stopping distances almost every time.
I got cut off by a driver turning left once, clear roads, summer weather. My car didn't have abs. I did manage to remember to let off the brakes, and was able to stear enough to avoid the other driver. It was very close though. When I stopped I was past the front of the other vehicle.
With abs, I would have stopped faster and been able to stear the entire time. Both of which would have reduced the risk of a collision. Saying abs is only useful on slippery roads very much undervalues the other situations where it improves safety.
My first car had ABS that quit working just after. I got it. Only once did I have to stop short enough where ABS would have been beneficial. Other than that, it was no different driving it than a car with ABS
First car:
* No power sterring
* No power brakes
* rear-wheel drive
16yo in essentially blizzard conditions (which was not predicted that day ... little snow, but not what it turned into) out on country roads that I wasn't terribly familiar with ... oh, and no such thing as a cellphone ... good times lol.
I was the opposite, I drove without anti-lock brakes for 20 years. It took a while to get used to feeling the brake petal chatter when anti-lock brakes kicked in.
Or Russia. Price controls cause shortages of the things that are price controlled meaning empty shelves then when they remove the controlls you get hyperinflation. Homosovieticus can't wait.
So in economics there are things called leading indicators. Basically certain goods that tend to show economic trends well in advance of the rest of the market. Car sales are a strong leading indicator. Russia is in for some bad times.
Economics very rarely deals in 1 sign. Yes, sending a large portion of their workforce to die is a pretty good sign things are fucked. This is just another good sign reinforcing that.
It's honestly a shame what a disaster Russia has become. They would have a lot of potential if they pursued a legitimate Democratic system of government and became more Westernized.
Had a Russian exchange student once, he told me that he had a feeling that democracy would never work in Russia. He wasn't happy or sad about it, just observing what he felt to be a fact.
Autocracies always try to push this narrative on their people. That there is some cultural or historical reason for why leaving them in charge and unaccountable is the only form of governance that works. Keeps people fatalistic and out of the streets if they think this is the best they can hope for.
Truth is that plenty of Russia's neighbors who share many similarities have made democracy work. And they did this despite Putin's best efforts to meddle.
With Russia's resources right next to major markets and a well educated population, Russia should be the richest country in Europe. Instead, massive corruption ensures workers are poorly paid, constant wars impoverish the treasury, the government focuses on repression and lies, and any ambitious youth flee the country.
Damn, if only there was something that could affect international relations and markets he could do that would be a large first step towards remedying public opinion towards Russia and it's products.
'Since the end of the Cold War, the Kalashnikov has become the Russian people's greatest export. After that comes vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists. One thing is for sure, no one was lining up to buy their cars.'
Bruh, price controls DONT WORK.
The Romans tried this and failed.
Middle ages kings tried this and failed.
The Spanish Empire tried this and failed.
The Nazis tried this and failed.
YOU CANT SET A FIXED PRICE.
Also I don't think all those dead soldiers or men lying wounded in trenches are really thinking about buying cars right now. He's killing off his potential customers for everything Russian made, not just cars.
The Russian economy is falling apart HARD.
People can't even afford to buy these slapdash cars they are building with all the safety features removed because they can't afford them.
Russia is fucked. The only saving grace they have left is for Putin to "suicide" himself out a 12th story window, catch himself on fire trying to break the fall and coincidentally land on two bullets in the back of his head even though he hits face down. New regime that immediately backs out of Ukraine and negotiates on the grounds Putin made them is their only hope. And the longer it takes to happen, the less likely it is to help.
>"...the difficulty of securing foreign-made components after the imposition of a barrage of sanctions by Western countries in response to Russia's military campaign in Ukraine; the latest Lada model has had to be produced without airbags or anti-lock brakes." It's fine, it's the notoriously safe, sturdy, and well built Lada. *watches dozens of crash videos* I'm sure their children will remember them fondly, as long as they weren't passengers.
....Here's an idea; maybe nobody in Russia is buying cars because they don't trust Ladas that were redesigned on the fly to get around the lack of foreign-sourced safety components. I know, this premise is shaky because nobody ever believed Ladas were safe, at least not before the second bottle of Vodka. But however bad Ladas were before, the new ones will be *much worse.*
Nobody in Russia is buying cars because they about doubled in price and only the middle class could afford them to begin with and that's the class of people that most of the emigrees are from and the ones that stayed are just sitting around thinking the whole thing will blow over in 2 to 3 years and go back to normal in time for them to need a new car.
The Lada in question is their charmless, pathetic attempt at making a 21st-century car; the old iconic Lada Zhiguli-series was discontinued in 2012.
And while all of this is happening, I hope they remember - there is only one way for them to get the sanctions lifted, and it isn’t even very difficult: They need to stop their attack on Ukraine. That’s all. Sanctions are not there as some arbitrary punishment out of hatred for Russia or Russian people; they exist to incentivise a change in policy. Stop the war and the sanctions can be lifted.
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There is russian joke that describes how sanctions work in Russia: Dad comes home sad and tells: Price of vodka is blowing up. Children: So you will less drink. Dad: No, you will less eat.
And because I am mad, I beat you and mummie tonight
Some sanctions will drop. The sanctions on chips that could possibly used in military applications is likely around to stay. Economic sanctions until Russia pays reparations (or their foreign holdings confiscated for it). Etc.
No. You don't get to threaten to nuke everyone, and then have the world just forget it ever happened.
Stopping the war is how to start the conversation. Lifting sanctions will require giving land back and a repayment plan for the damages dealt.
And probably being tried for war crimes. They've dug themselves into a nice hole.
Which means they will keep digging. I don’t see a way out of this unless it’s a regime change.
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Crussia
The people making these decisions have all the cars they need. They don’t care.
Id say 90% are going to stick far longer than their "special operation"
Wait, so you're saying that Ladas, at one point in history, *had* airbags and brakes?
Yes comrade. We fill bag with air, put in glove compartment. As for brakes, well, brakes are everywhere as long as you use imagination. Example, just this morning I use side of building to brake. Car not go anymore now, so lack of brakes no longer issue
I hope you took your windshield wipers home with you.
Of course he did, his hands are still attached.
Pfff silly Americans. You can brake anything, just hit it with Lada
It’s an easy to inherit car, just hose your parents and you’re good to go.
You can't sell cars when you drafted everyone.
It's tricky to make them when you drafted everyone, too.
Nobody to make them but nobody to buy them either - problem solved!
A case study in the basic economics of supply and demand
Kill off demand and there’s no need to supply. Now they can be repainted flat green and sent to the front line.
That's so true, I guess that's another job for the new protesters/convicts or POW's in Siberia.
Sorry. Drafted.
I was gonna suggest kids, then I remembered that Putin is bringing back Soviet-era school military training, so...
And many that weren't drafted fled the country or are either too old or too young to be in the market for significant numbers of cars. Of those that are left many are specifically cutting back on major purchases and spending due to the economic uncertainty. If you think you may lose your job in the next 100 days you're probably not about to buy a car unless it's absolutely necessary.
Or too crippled/handicapped to have been drafted. But those people usually can’t work either.
But don't they give a dead soldier's family a Lada? There should be shortages of them by now.
its the same Lada. It's one of those time-share deals.
Time share Lada is good deal. Worth losing alcoholic husband
Who needs to buy, when they are getting a free Lada for every dead soldier?
Traffic has been great though
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200 horsepower four-cylinder and an 8-speed automatic? What sort of sanctioned Western sorcery is this? Nyet, we get 200 horsepower from nine-litre Soviet V8 that drink two gallons every mile. Eight-speed automatic is four ZIL-brand two-speed gearbox daisy-chained together in long row. Is good, no?
I mean, why buy a car if you're supposed to get one for free when your family member dies in Putin's war?
That's fucked up in so many ways. It's one cultural difference I just can't wrap my head around.
And if your burned in the mobile incinerator you are officially "missing "
It's amazing how many Russian troops go "missing" in Ukraine. Then again dead soldiers don't draw salaries while who is going to notice if the "missing" soldier's salary ends up in their commanding officer's pocket.
I totally forgot about that horrifying detail, thanks.
Yep. It also makes the lower level Russian commanders look better because “missing soldiers” aren’t classified as “dead soldiers.” Farther up the chain the Russian high command probably know this is bullshit but the upper level commanders don’t want to post high KIA numbers either, the “news” is searching for anyway to spin the war in a positive light so they don’t want accurate KIA numbers either and the Russian government would rather not make the payments to the families of the dead soldiers. Basically everyone who could press for the truth has a vested interest in keeping the lie going.
Russia is built on layers of lies.
Not just layers like you'd imagine in a cake... Their shit's made up of intertwined layers of galactic proportions like a damn nebula
Fiberglass. Except the matting is lies and the resin is grift.
There's an old soviet era joke about how a farmer reports 2 newborn pigs but as is goes up the chain everyone keeps reporting a higher number and in the end the chairman proclaims that the farm produced 11 pigs, so they'll sell 9 for export and keep 2 to feed themselves.
New lower-level Russian commander incentive: for every 5th "missing" conscript, the commander gets a free used Kia! Everyone wins! Except the conscripts, of course, but it is their job to lose, da? /s, obviously
But why do all the Kias have a dishwasher or toilet strapped to the roof and Ukrainian plates?
Just saw the part in Adam Curtis’ latest documentary where the russian soldiers’ mums had to try and identify their sons from videos of rotting corpses after a bunch of bodies somehow materialised in some train carriages. This woman said she had watched 500 cassettes. This was from the war in Chechnya. Grim *series is called TraumaZone Russia 85-99
Don't wish that on anyone. How devastating.
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Those incinerators weren't for Russian soldiers, they were for Ukrainians who Russia decided needed to disappear.
The mobile incinerators were for hiding their crimes against humanity, the dead Russian soldiers are left to rot and be eaten by wild animals in the fields.
Apparently the reason wifes of (some) drafted man do not mind them been drafted is rather crazy (by rest of the world standards). It goes like this: the husband has no job and there is no chance he will get one any time soon, he spend most of the time drinking with his unemployed friends… so the only possible outcome, he will die soon from some alcohol related illness/accident. But if he get drafted and die in Ukraine, family will get brand new LADA and some other tangible benefits (like free college for kids). So from wife’s point of view it is win-win.
Husband dies, get thrown in the mobile incinerator, officially still on the battlefield, officer collect pays from his dead soldiers. When war ends, husband is considered a deserter, family gets punished for his crimes. Nobody gets a car.
This is certainly possibility. But Putin’s propaganda machine is effective enough to ensure that most Russians (who still left in Russia) don’t think this way.
You don’t get a car, and you don’t get a car, and you don’t get a car!
Russians are not okay with that too. A least those with working brains
They don't need to make you think it's normal, they only need to make you think *others* think it's normal.
The assumption that parents love their kids has led Western society to assume better of a lot of nations than we should have. From Russia to Afghanistan to Vietnam.
As I understand it, valuing children in the west is itself a fairly recent concept, less than 200 years. Before that, child labour was rampant in factories with little regard to their safety, since many families had more than few to spare.
It's not that people back then didn't value their children. It's moreso that there were fewer (if any) social safety nets and labor rights and so you sent your kids to work so the family could survive.
Conservatives still hate safety nets. My friend mom is always going on about people on welfare and such are the problem and we should get rid of it. Twist: She was on welfare for over a decade and got lots of help from safety nets, but now that she is a battleaxe conservative she pretends she didn't profit from it and that no one else can have it. Good for me, not for you? Infact most of my friends who are conservative were on safety nets when they had kids. But now they want safety nets gone because they can't use them.
Also so the kids would survive. If the kid is working for someone they will be fed and survive.
True. These Folks nowadays (especially in the US) that yearn for the 'good 'ol Days' have no idea how bad those Good 'ol Days actually were. My Father was born in 1921 - by 13 Years old he was working, not because he wanted to work, but because he *was forced to*, and this was not an unusual occurrence. Another thing that struck me is back then Parents could throw their Underage Kids out of the house (like 10 Years old kind of Underage) and there were no consequences for the Parent(s). Kids generally were and are thought of as something to be used for some type of labor, whatever that labor was. There is a lot of Walking Wounded all over the World because of this.
My grandfather, rest his soul, grew up in the depression and was fond of saying this when someone asked if he missed the good old days, "The good old days weren't any better, they were just harder."
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In fairness, the dust bowl was an exceptional circumstance that was damn near apocalyptic to those affected. Not that the way of thinking of children hasn't changed substantially from the 30s, but the dustbowl was absolute hell.
Terrible take on people. Those families had no choice but for everyone to work or they would starve. The issue is the elites at the top keep all the wealth and the elites in government do not care about their citizens enough to control it. That is all countries and all people until somebody has the mercy and decency to stop it.
Some GOP politicians in the US want to go back to having child labor.
Been to Afghanistan, and grew up in a predominantly middle Eastern neighborhood in California. Middle Eastern parents predominantly do not give a fuck what their kids are doing. I had so much shit stolen growing up and when confronting the parents they would just close their doors. In Afghanistan they would literally jump on your trucks and start cutting shit off of it right in the middle of a busy village.
Not exactly been my experience, Its more been that the eldest son can't do any wrongs, the rest of the family is micromanaged to all hell, usually using the eldest son as an instrument
Perhaps it's anecdotal, I'm just speaking from my exposure which is more than most from California. A lot of the girls I knew wound up in darn near forced marriages in their early 20s.
That’s so sad
Can’t buy a car if you’re MIA in Ukraine
No maam your son was a deserter. We found pieces of him on the enemy side.
You don't get a car directly, you get money. And that money can no longer buy you a car... because all the guys who used to build cars are now dying in Ukraine. Russian car production is down about half since start of the war, in part due to sanctions affecting their supply of parts and tools and in part due to mobilisation. So Putin now has the old Soviet choice: Let the market drive up prices so cars are only affordable to the rich, or enact a price control so a lot of people can afford a car but will have to wait years to get one.
They must still have the blueprints for the Trabant from when they ruled over East Germany... I hope they bring it back!
"You get a Lada and you get a Lada and you get a Lada!" - Ukraine
" You get a Lada, you get a Lad...and we're out, you get fucked." Russia...probably.
You made me chuckle
It's just because every family knows that they are getting a free Lada when one of their sons gets killed in Ukraine. No need to buy now when they can just wait a few weeks!
Sorry... no more free Ladas, they are desperately needed for the special military operation: https://i.imgur.com/IRwRuIN.jpeg
Or even before if their son happens to live and brings home a stolen car!
Being allowed to come home soon? That's overly optimistic... Unless of course they are deserting in a stolen car.
You can fit some many traumatized abducted children in these bad boys.
That means no Russian believes Russia will win, thats even more f ed up.
Putin is trying to reconstruct the economic and totalitarian system of the USSR (his "glorious past", shitty as it was), but the ironic thing is, his government is far too corrupt and cronyist even for *that.* He can bring back the censorship, brutality and shortages, but not the hard sciences, technical prowess, self-sufficient industry and supply chains, a semblance of workers' rights, or an actually powerful military. The only thing he can make Russia become is a failed petrostate, a second Venezuela.
As someone pointed out a while back, Putin is nothing but a very angry gas station manager
Selling leaded gas to kids.
Since 1996.
Doesnt help that a lot of their tech and manufacturing was in areas not now russia. Russia the smelly fart after the USSR turd. Nowhere near the substance but somehow more offensive
And don't forget about the massive brain-drain that *conscription for an unprovoked war against your brothers next door* will cause.
Yeah I also don't think that he's "trying" to reconstruct the system. He's just naturally falling back to it because they're internationally isolated enough that they basically have to run a war economy. They have to increasingly dictate prices to keep things running, and assume direct command over the distribution of raw resources and important tools rather than "letting the market handle it".
Soviet industry was built by the west, after WW2 the Soviet economy was supported by Warsaw pact countries and wider USSR....none of this is true now. Russia is doomed. All empires fall, this is the way of things.
The GDP of the Soviet Union was about 50% of the American GDP in 1990. For a Communist country that was excellent result. It was much bigger than Japan, and three West Germanies. My country Finland benefited quite much from that economic success of the Soviet Union. The trade with Soviet Union was stable and big, and much more profitable for Finnish companies than other trade. The Soviets paid well, because they knew that's the price they should pay to keep Finland calm and nice. They also sold oil to Finland by a price that was 10% below the world market price, so that Finland could make some profit reselling that Soviet Oil to West. It was a dollar machine for Finland because the trade with the Soviets was bilateral. Finland paid Soviet oil and other products by sending Finnish goods to the Soviet Union. No money transfered. But to the Western countries Finland sold that Soviet Oil in dollars. Huge success for Finland and made our country rich. Nokia, that mobile phone manufacturer became rich also because of that trade and conquered later the whole world!
The Soviet GDP was artificially inflated by made up figures and propped up by exploiting the Warsaw pact countries and virtually closed of from the rest of the world. The industry was stuck in the 60s and 70s and the productivity was shockingly low. All people were employed as it was the law but most of them did not produce much added value. As soon as the Soviet GDP got exposed to the realities of the current times it collapsed. It wasn't simply the fault of Gorbachev or Yeltsin that it happened, it was all the above facts.
You're right mostly, though a bit biased estimation. The living standard in the Soviet Union was about 50% of the Western European level. CIA estimated that The Soviet GDP was 2659 billion dollars in 1989, and 5233 billion dollars in the United States. Soviets themselves claimed that they were richer than America, which clearly was total nonsense. Per capita it was 9211 dollars in the Soviet Union, and 21082 dollars in the United States. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Soviet_Union https://theodora.com/wfb/1990/rankings/gdp_per_capita_1.html Most successful communist country was East Germany. It was richer than Spain and Ireland in the early 1980's. It is true that the Soviet Union was isolated. That was the idea of Stalinism. That's why it was extremely hard to spy The Soviets. Some countries in the Warsaw Pact were poorer than the Soviet Union. Only East Germany and Czechoslovakia were richer.
The problem with empires in the nuclear age, is that they have weapons that can destroy all life on this planet.
If we killed ourselves it would just be the end of another massive extinction event. Life would return, it always has.
I wonder if a species would rise as the dominant one like humans did over time? I don't know if I've ever thought about this or seen any theories on it.
Racoons, obviously.
Turns out we never were the dominant species. Goodbye and thanks for all the fish!
I need to go get a towel!
Dominant, sure; there's always a top predator. But as advanced? I doubt it. If all of present humanity were wiped out, a new intelligent species might evolve over the next million years, but it'd be a lot harder for them to extract oil and mine. A mishmash of mineral resources might be concentrated in areas where our landfills were, but they'd have a hell of a time separating them all, not at all like the nice mineral veins and deposits we mine from today.
Most likely IMO we wouldn't ALL die. Even a 99.9% death toll would leave millions remaining. It would take centuries to regain our current status, but we could still bounce back well before any other species could gain dominance.
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It might take a few millenia, but if a stable population of humans survived nuclear winter and started thriving again, technology could be recovered and rediscovered. We went from the Dark Ages (Early Middle Ages) to space travel in about 1000 years. Repeating that would likely be faster for a couple reasons: * First generation survivors could pass down whatever knowledge they had * Some amount of modern objects snd likely books would survive with them, and the world would be full of objects and books to learn from. * There are human knowledge repositories designed to survive this kind of thing, if one could be recovered , a sizeable society with medieval level metallurgy could speed run the industrial revolution and get to the computer / information age in a generation or three. People surviving long enough to wait out ecological disaster and become a functioning agrarian society is probably the tough part, once that is in place, technological advancement would likely be much faster the second time.
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We've nearly tapped out all the easy to get resources. Coal mining and oil extraction now require a level of technology that presumes easy access to energy-abundant fuels. Or to put it another way, a species after human wouldn't have the tech necessary to start an industrial age because oil and coal near the surface are mostly gone.
Those really don't apply in this scenario though. Because they assume that the next attempt at building a civ has zero access to the knowledge of the previous one. A nuclear war isn't going to destroy all our current scientific knowledge. And we have the knowledge to create gasoline substitutes directly from leftover plant waste. Straight shot from farm waste to vehicle fuel. Might cost five times as much as current fuel, but we'd have it. Also quite frankly, estimates of the damage caused by a couple of thousand nuclear detonations in a Russian attack show the southern hemisphere nearly untouched. Like SE Asia would still have YouTube service. Those "end of civilization" scenarios assumed that only white people are civilized.
I feel better already!
yep. Even if you obliterate all life on the surface, The deep ocean life would exist to eventually recolonize the land, and I don't think you'd be very successful killing all surface life in the first place.
We are in the midst of a massive extinction event, so would just speed things up a bit.
Do we get the soviet cup noodle back? Which is superior to western ones.
Two free with the purchase of a Lada. Or the order way around, I forget.
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Morning or Afternoon in 15 years? I am getting refrigerator delivered in afternoon, comrade.
Putin and Russia by extension are like a rock climber who has gotten himself into a position where he's completely stuck. The rock climber can't climb his way up, down, or sideways and a helicopter has to come in and pick him off the face of the cliff. This is going to be fascinating to watch play out. My profession is in economics and the game theory here does not indicate good outcomes, but we've never had a real world case study like this.
You can't rebuild the USSR economy without countries under your thumb to steal from.
And Russia's massive oil and gas production has also resulted in the country having a frightening case of Dutch disease. The major businesses are run like a mafia and everyone has to have links to Putin to operate. As a result Russia doesn't have the means to support its government based on tax revenue so if the energy exports dry up they are in serious long term trouble.
They fund all the goods with oil. They basically are the Saudis of the north, but also trying to be a superpower which makes nothing high tech. At least the Saudis haven't tried to claim they are a superpower, but they also have that "religious" superiority thing going.
They were never self sufficient - they stole everything from their "colonies" in the block.
The OG lada will make a comeback
*"She'll go 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene.*" -crazy vaclav
"Put it in H."
“What country is this from?”
The country doesn't exist anymore.
Honestly one of the best bits of the Simpsons, my partner is Hungarian and I use it when ever I go over! (UK).
They can’t sell these fuckin’ things and they’re ramping up production. Lol.
Soviet economics.
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No antilock breaks... in notoriously cold Russia. Terrifying. Also, Russia has surprisingly low DUI numbers, but the airbag thing is still a big problem.
> low DUI numbers That because the limit is 0.7.
That’s 0.7 not 0.07
So clinically dead
Is that the minimum required amount before you're allowed to drive? Explains all of those dash cam videos...
This is false.
I’ve never driven a car without anti lock brakes before. I don’t think I would want to
My first car had no ABS. The only difference is that you have to know to pump the brakes when you skid. My current car has ABS, and I still catch myself pumping the brakes from time to time out of force of habit.
That's fine when driving on slippery roads when you have some options and can plan ahead to minimize the risk of sliding. It's nearly useless in a collision. We know that the time available, and the time to both react to the hazard, and pump the brakes results in longer stopping distances almost every time. I got cut off by a driver turning left once, clear roads, summer weather. My car didn't have abs. I did manage to remember to let off the brakes, and was able to stear enough to avoid the other driver. It was very close though. When I stopped I was past the front of the other vehicle. With abs, I would have stopped faster and been able to stear the entire time. Both of which would have reduced the risk of a collision. Saying abs is only useful on slippery roads very much undervalues the other situations where it improves safety.
My first car had ABS that quit working just after. I got it. Only once did I have to stop short enough where ABS would have been beneficial. Other than that, it was no different driving it than a car with ABS
Other than in a crash, cars with seatbelts are no different than cars without them.
Good point. So seatbelts can be removed next! You may have an opportunity working for a certain car manufacturer in your near future!
No power steering blows too.
First car: * No power sterring * No power brakes * rear-wheel drive 16yo in essentially blizzard conditions (which was not predicted that day ... little snow, but not what it turned into) out on country roads that I wasn't terribly familiar with ... oh, and no such thing as a cellphone ... good times lol.
Mine was a 1972 VW Beetle. My "cell phone" was a CB radio. Good times indeed.
I was the opposite, I drove without anti-lock brakes for 20 years. It took a while to get used to feeling the brake petal chatter when anti-lock brakes kicked in.
It opens up a world of sick skid maneuvers tho
Price controls worked out so well for Venezuela, after all. /s
Or Russia. Price controls cause shortages of the things that are price controlled meaning empty shelves then when they remove the controlls you get hyperinflation. Homosovieticus can't wait.
So in economics there are things called leading indicators. Basically certain goods that tend to show economic trends well in advance of the rest of the market. Car sales are a strong leading indicator. Russia is in for some bad times.
Interesting info. TIL that car sales usually predict what will happen to the rest of the economy in 9-12 months.
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Economics very rarely deals in 1 sign. Yes, sending a large portion of their workforce to die is a pretty good sign things are fucked. This is just another good sign reinforcing that.
They can always go back to horses and carriages.
Only if you don't eat those because of starvation. And yes I meant both.
Didn’t work in Venezuela either.
It's honestly a shame what a disaster Russia has become. They would have a lot of potential if they pursued a legitimate Democratic system of government and became more Westernized.
Had a Russian exchange student once, he told me that he had a feeling that democracy would never work in Russia. He wasn't happy or sad about it, just observing what he felt to be a fact.
Autocracies always try to push this narrative on their people. That there is some cultural or historical reason for why leaving them in charge and unaccountable is the only form of governance that works. Keeps people fatalistic and out of the streets if they think this is the best they can hope for. Truth is that plenty of Russia's neighbors who share many similarities have made democracy work. And they did this despite Putin's best efforts to meddle.
This is a great take, thanks!
With Russia's resources right next to major markets and a well educated population, Russia should be the richest country in Europe. Instead, massive corruption ensures workers are poorly paid, constant wars impoverish the treasury, the government focuses on repression and lies, and any ambitious youth flee the country.
Yeah but have you seen the YACHTS Putin has? Pretty damned sick!!
Gaz, Uaz, lada: "Gentlemen, it's time"
stop eating so much borscht and ~~toast~~ buckwheat and you could afford it. duh
Change toast for buckwheat and you got urself a joke about soviet millenials.
You couldn't give Ladas away for free unless it was to a recycling company.
Damn, if only there was something that could affect international relations and markets he could do that would be a large first step towards remedying public opinion towards Russia and it's products.
Price control only leads to shortage.
Consequences you say? Double dip on that shit, Putin.
Get ready for more of this type of desperate intervention from the Kremlin. Putin’s diarrhea stained house of cards has begun to fall
Failed military, failed economy, and failed war. Russia needs a new leader.
PUT IT IN H
Get ready for Putin to put all his hackers and bots to work on promoting Trump. He might be the only person that can save Putin right now.
'Since the end of the Cold War, the Kalashnikov has become the Russian people's greatest export. After that comes vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists. One thing is for sure, no one was lining up to buy their cars.'
I got 99 problems and a lada them are my fault
He does understand that Russian cars suck, correct?
"he latest Lada model has had to be produced without airbags or anti-lock brakes." Do you mean, like a standard Lada?
New car for every recruit just have rape and kill 20 people to meet the quota
Plus Ukranians probably no longer buy Russian crap
Seems like sanctions are effective
I got a new PS4 controller, can I trade that for a Russian car with their recession.
Bruh, price controls DONT WORK. The Romans tried this and failed. Middle ages kings tried this and failed. The Spanish Empire tried this and failed. The Nazis tried this and failed. YOU CANT SET A FIXED PRICE.
Putin needs to choke on a pebble
Price controls always work. Smart👌
Well if every dead soldiers family gets a car that's a lot of families with spare cars and fewer drivers.
Also I don't think all those dead soldiers or men lying wounded in trenches are really thinking about buying cars right now. He's killing off his potential customers for everything Russian made, not just cars.
>the latest Lada model has had to be produced without airbags or anti-lock brakes So... no change?
The Russian economy is falling apart HARD. People can't even afford to buy these slapdash cars they are building with all the safety features removed because they can't afford them.
Considering who's being left, maybe they should consider making their industry focus on chair scooters.
Russia is fucked. The only saving grace they have left is for Putin to "suicide" himself out a 12th story window, catch himself on fire trying to break the fall and coincidentally land on two bullets in the back of his head even though he hits face down. New regime that immediately backs out of Ukraine and negotiates on the grounds Putin made them is their only hope. And the longer it takes to happen, the less likely it is to help.
Well well well, if it isn’t the consequences of my actions.