I’m reading an interview with Russia’s new Minister of Economic Development, and he’ll clearly be voting for me in the presidential election. Maxim Oreshkin identifies poverty as the key problem holding back economic growth.
That is exactly what I talk about in my campaign platform.
It’s just a shame that Oreshkin does not connect the problem of poverty with the problem of inequality. Today, Interfax cheerfully informed us how wonderfully things are going for Russia’s billionaires:
Particularly uplifting is this life-affirming line from the report: Thus, the wealth of the richest people in Russia grew faster than in any other country.
Amaaaazing! Gennady Timchenko was getting richer so fast that no one else in the world could keep up with him. We really have something to be proud of.
And in general, the combined wealth of our 77 dollar billionaires has already reached a full $282 billion (just like the number of the extremism article in the Russian Criminal Code).
It’s a shame the economy minister does not see the direct connection between how such a tiny number of people monopolized this very economy—with the backing of officials—and became fabulously rich, and how everyone else ended up not so fabulously poor. So much for human capital.
Oh well. If he doesn’t see it, he doesn’t see it. As long as he votes, that’s something.