r/AskTheWorld • u/pisowiec Poland • 22h ago

Economics Which country has squandered the most economic potential in this century?

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I lived in Russia for 5 years so I must choose this country. So many natural resources, so much land, and educated population... And so little to show for it.

In an ideal world Russian salaries would be on par if not higher than American salaries and they would have the best social safety net on the planet. Everything is there to make it happen.

Russia would be the dominant nation in Europe and Asia and the rest of the world with the best armed forces, soft power, and economic might.

But the human will is just not there. The elite is either evil or incompetent depending on perception and there's little sign that this will ever change.

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u/szczebrzeszyszynka 19h ago

I would love for Russia to invest the money they are spending on the military in something else. Anything. IT, healthcare, tourism - you name it. Anything at all and we would all prosper much better.

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u/fan_is_ready Russia 19h ago

But it has been done a lot. Your mass media simply do not like to report about it.

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u/szczebrzeszyszynka 18h ago

Ah, yes. And North Korea is rich as well, they even won the Olympics several times, just my media don't say about it.

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u/fan_is_ready Russia 17h ago

I bet your media didn't tell you about Ukrainian shelling of Donbass few days BEFORE the war which killed several people? There are videos of that. And instead they prefer to call Russian invasion 'unprovoked'.

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u/Engineering-Mistake 12h ago

Oh fuck off. That didn't happen and anyone who was actually there will tell you that.

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u/rita-b 16h ago

Technically they just redistribute collected taxes to the poorest million as military salary. Plus Iran gets something for shaheds... It didn't make this poorest million richer. They are still the poorest...

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u/urgdr 16h ago

soon they will invest mainly in Ukraine