KennyR wrote:
The Russians may be poor, but food is cheap. They're not going hungry. Most people are poor, the economy is depressed, and vodka, HIV and heroin are sending people to early graves. Russia needs a cleanup, a New Deal, and a new direction. A new cold war only does one of these things.
Vodka has sent russians to an early grave for a long time, life expectancy in Russia is actually up, its just still very very low, because they are huge drinkers. On my cruise in Russia, I pretty much saw every crew member drink more then the average frat boy does on a weekend binge basically every night, and this was summer "White Nights" time of the year not winter when they apparently take their drinking seriously. Life expectancy in Russia they told us was 55 for a man. Also the main reason for their economic issues is they did not give up their retirement benefits when they changed from their communist system, so they still put people on the dole at 50 or 55 depending on their job, but have to tax high to keep the growing retired group in food and services.
-Tig
