I'm glad I posted that chart otherwise I would have missed out on the intelligent and mature discussion of it's contents that has subsequently ensued. Anyway, I'm moving to Hong Kong!
And yet russians are rushing (no pun intended) to get out of Russia. Its very easy to have a budge surplus when you tax all of your citizens and then only spend the tax dollars in 2 cities of the entire country. Russia also has an employment rate thats the same as the US. And if you look at any town outside the major cities and people pretty much live in shacks there. Inflation was 14% in 2008 and almost 12% in 2009. The central bank discount rate was 13% at the beginning of 2009. Can you imagine high inflation like that WITH bank rates like that? Must be ALOT of money printing. GDP per capita was $15,000. Not alot of money and GDP FELL 8.5% in 2009. But hey...you russians got a 13% tax rate! Thats great...sounds like paradise. Its like looking at a bum who hasnt showered for 3 days, is filthy, smells, no job, no family, but has a brand new pair of shoes and wants everyone to see how nice those shoes are and ignore the rest.
And what do you expect; their country was being devastated for almost 80 years of communism. If you have a normal brain you choose to live in a non-devastated country. Contrary to your claim it isn't easy at all. It isn't easy to explain to your voters and intorduce in real life a dramatic change from communism (throwing away public money) to conservatism (spending as little public money as one can). I can only assume Russians are getting more happy as more money stays in their pockets. The less their government spends the less mistakes their government makes. A dollar in private hands is more effective than a dollar in government's hands. If I am not mistaken the US debt far exceeds the money in cirulation. Mathematically the US debt is impossible to be repaid. On the other hand, Russians have budget surplus... Logically, as the budget surplus grows the taxes should be cut even deeper. ANd more money should stay in peoples' pocket. I like this idea. I assume you are right on all the statistics data you mention, but I am not a Russian and unfortunately have to pay a much higher income tax. Such people can be found in almost every country in the world. I find your comparison rather unfair for the Russians, but hey! - who am I to judge you?
We've seen that brainpower isn't your strong suit but it's common knowledge that Canada is much more than Ontario & Alberta. Especially if one's lived there. What happened to all your "on the ground experience"?
I seem to remember USSR being in that same situation 20 years ago...only difference is we didnt collapse from our over spending at that time. But hey...you like low taxes? You should try Somalia then. They have a zero % tax rate. If you want nice streets, schools, places to put criminals and an army to protect you from a world thats pissed off at you for sucking up too much oil, you kind of need a higher tax than 13%
They collapsed and learned from their own mistakes. Wouldn't it be nice if the US learnt from others' mistakes and not followed the path that was alredy proven catastrophic? No, thanks. Nice streets ... Yeah, clean streets in New Orleans. So many years have lapsed, so much was paid in taxes and you still can't tide up the place. Places to put criminals ... there are more criminals in the US than were in Maoist China Protect you from a world thats pissed off at you ... Stop pissing off at world and the world will stop pissing off at you Every newly born US citizen receives $ 250k of debt as a gift from the government. Every newly born Russian citizen receives no debt at all. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zeX1AvsNBGQ&hl=pl_PL&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zeX1AvsNBGQ&hl=pl_PL&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>