I'm surprised that even now, after the ruble's devaluation, prices for many food products in the U.S. are lower than in Russia—or at about the same level.
I remember that when I was studying in Connecticut in 2010, this was one of the things that struck me. Salaries were much higher, while food prices were significantly lower.
And now, measured in dollars, our salaries have shrunk to almost nothing, while food prices are still on par with those in the wealthy United States.
I've also noticed that this is an important talking point for the Putin-Prigozhin troll factory. The moment you write anywhere about high salaries in Europe, people immediately flood the comments shouting, "But look at their taxes," "But look how much they pay for housing and utilities," and so on.
From this perspective, the Living in Russia channel has made a useful and instructive comparison.
In general, subscribe to them. It's an amusing experiment with an ambitious goal: "to build an opposition channel with a million subscribers and learn how to make money from it." It'll be interesting to see whether they succeed.
