rortian comments on The Craigslist Revolution: a real-world application of torture vs. dust specks OR How I learned to stop worrying and create one billion dollars out of nothing - Less Wrong

47 Post author: Kevin 10 February 2010 03:15AM

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Comment author: rortian 14 February 2010 07:37:49AM 2 points [-]
Comment author: CronoDAS 14 February 2010 08:01:45AM *  0 points [-]

Russia had a head start - and has oil wealth. For comparison, Saudi Arabia's GDP per capita is on the order of $17,000. 45% of its entire GDP is its nationalized oil industry; private industry is only 40%.

Comment author: rortian 14 February 2010 03:02:46PM *  1 point [-]

It's true. However I think people get a little caught up in the China is growing story. Russia is a dying country in a lot of ways. However, both are heavily controlled by corrupt leaders.

EDIT:was->ways

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 14 February 2010 10:29:34PM 0 points [-]

Russia had a head start

That is not clearly relevant, since the graph was not about Russia being richer, but growing faster. That the USSR numbers were higher might be relevant, if it makes it easier to return to them.

has oil wealth

Russia has a similar amount of oil exports to Saudi Arabia, spread over five times the population, but has similar GDP per capita. Simply going from 0 to its current oil doesn't account for the change over the past decade. If you throw in gas, aluminum and steel, it might be a big piece of the change, though.

Comment author: CronoDAS 14 February 2010 10:31:52PM 0 points [-]

Oops, I only noticed the number, not the graph.