On Mar 12, 2010, at 4:19 PM, dredmond at efn.org wrote:
> I don't mean to diminish in any way the neolib looting of the former
> USSR
> from 1990-1998, which was one of the monstrous crimes of the 20th
> century,
> but 15% of Soviet GDP was military output. Russia's military
> spending is
> around 2.7% of GDP today, so civilian output per person -- as
> opposed to
> tanks you can't drive and bullets you can't eat -- is more like 20%
> higher
> than 1989.
Hmm, maybe, but the military share of Soviet output was pretty sensitive to who was doing the calculations. In any case, the macro figures say nothing about distribution. Given that today's Russia has a higher gini than the U.S. (.437 vs. .372, according to the LIS), it's likely that most, and maybe more than all, of that 20% increment has gone to the folks at the top.
Doug