>>> jkschw at hotmail.com 12/06/00 05:10PM >>>
So what shall we say about the planning that you advocate? Shall we ask some Ukrainian peasants? --jks
>The "market" that Hayek pushes has killed more people than AIDS.
>
>CB
>
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CB: Although controlled experiments are almost impossible on this level, holding constant for the country , Russia, the evidence is growing that the market has been worse for Russians than planning.
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Russia's Population To Decline
=====================
by VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) -- The steady decline of Russia's population, unprecedented
for an industrialized nation not at war, is likely to last for decades
to come, the head of the government statistics agency said Tuesday.
''The population decline, which started in 1992, will continue for many
years, maybe decades, maybe even a half-century,'' Vladimir Sokolin, the
head of Russia's State Statistics Committee, said at a news conference.
Russia's population has dwindled by 3.3 million since the 1991 Soviet
collapse to about 145 million as of Oct. 1. In the first nine months of
this year alone, the country lost 550,600 people. [communism "murders"
people while capitalism "loses" people. Interesting notion- MS] The State
Statistics Committee forecasts that the population will shrink by 11
million more people in the next 15 years.
While some factors behind the trend, such as the falling birth rate, are
similar to those in Western nations, experts point to economic
depression as the key reason for the population decline. Dismal economic
conditions in the 1990s have led to a dramatic plunge in living
standards, a steady disintegration of the state health care system, and
a corresponding rise in mortality.
According to the latest report from the State Statistics Committee,
Russia's overall average life expectancy fell by about three years
during the last decade to 66 years in 1999. The rate for men was 60
years, 10-15 years less than in Western countries, while the average
life expectancy for women was 72 years, six to eight years less than in
the West.
''The gap between life expectancy for men and women in Russia is one of
the widest in the world,'' said Irina Zbarskaya, the head of
demographics research at the State Statistics Committee. Experts have attributed the gap to increasing alcohol abuse that has taken a harsh
toll on Russian men.
The decline in health care has resulted in a high number of deaths of
babies up to a year old, far exceeding the level in Western countries.
Russia's infant mortality rate, which reached its peak with 20 deaths
per 1,000 births in 1993, has since dropped, reaching just under 16 per
1,000 births last year. But that was still shockingly high compared with
the U.S. infant mortality rate of about 7 deaths per 1,000 births in
1999.
''The infant mortality rate that Russia has is extremely high for a
developed country,'' Zbarskaya said.
The drop in population has been partly compensated by an inflow of
immigrants, mainly ethnic Russians from other former Soviet republics.
But immigration has slowed down, Zbarskaya said.