I liked yesterday’s debate with Lebedev. We managed to talk a bit about important issues.
It’s true that Artemy ended up having to answer for the entire state procurement system, but he volunteered for this kind of debate himself. Here is his post-debate write-up.
In any case, it was a useful exercise for everyone. There is simply no real, live political discussion in the media.
There was also an extremely important, though brief, argument about one point in my platform: introducing a minimum wage of 25,000 rubles (about $400 at the time).
On this, both Lebedev and the host, Ksenia Sobchak, were in complete agreement and started accusing me of populism.
Throughout my entire campaign, I will keep arguing tirelessly and consistently that this is a normal market measure, not populism. I want to record a video about it, but for now, read this article by economist Maxim Mironov, a professor at Spain’s IE Business School, about the measure.
In it, he examines all the main arguments against introducing a minimum wage:
- small business - supply, demand, and unemployment, - rising costs for the economy and the budget, and, finally, inflation.
That was exactly what Artemy kept stressing when he said the price of a loaf of bread would skyrocket.
That’s it. This matters.
And let me immediately answer the frequently asked questions about the debate:
- the lemon slices were very tasty.
- yes, I really did make a bet with Lebedev and Sobchak over a bottle of white and a bottle of red.
if you didn’t watch the live broadcast, you can watch it here (for subscribers). If you don’t have a subscription to TV Rain (an independent Russian TV channel), they will make the recording free after 24 hours. So at 7:00 p.m., you’ll be able to watch it on their channel or on ours, at this link.
Thanks to everyone who watched. Thanks to TV Rain for organizing it.