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Magic formula to save Russian economy
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1. |
03 Sep 2010 Fri 08:20 am |
Russian Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin asked his citizens to consume more alcohol and cigarettes.
Russia is the number one alcohol and cigarette consumer in the world, where 65 percent of men are smokers. The majority of Russians, according to official figures, consume annual average of 18 liters of vodka.Because of alcohol and smoking related diseases every year 500 thousand people lose their lives in Russia, while the average life comes after the countries such as Honduras and Bangladesh. Cigarettes and alcohol are sold at very low prices to encourage consumption. Cigarette packs are sold in the U.S. at an average of eight dollars, while one dollar in Russia, the unfiltered ones are sold upto 30 cents.
Quoted from: here
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2. |
04 Sep 2010 Sat 01:30 am |
Sure... nothing is more productive than an alcoholic with a nast cough.
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04 Sep 2010 Sat 11:05 am |
It´s inacurate to compare the cost of cigarettes in the US and Russia without comparing the wages first. It´s like comaring Poland and Ireland. Here fags are about €8.05, in Poland 8.40pln, which equals €2.1. However, the minimum wage in Ireland is €8.65, which gives about €1349.42 per month. In Poland the minimum monthly salary net is 936pln or €234.
Anyone still wanting to envy Poland its cheap cigarettes?
I wonder what the minimum wage in Russia is...
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05 Sep 2010 Sun 01:27 am |
I don´t know what the prices are like in Turkey but I believe any penny spent on tobacco is completely wasted.
Though not a personal favourite among politicians, I support Erdogan´s stance about tobacco ban in public and work places. When I was a child I remember grown ups´ smoking on intercity coaches. There would be babies on those coaches as well. We were all exposed to second hand smoke for years and many of us developed illnesses associated with it. We copied them and became smokers ourselves. Some of us could lose the addiction and some of us lost their lives. I had a friend who was five years younger than I am. He kept drinking beer on a daily basis and he was a chain smoker. Last year, we lost him to lung cancer. Another friend of mine who is two years older than me is fighting with bladder cancer which is smoking related.
What good will economy will bring to people whose days are numbered?
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05 Sep 2010 Sun 12:17 pm |
Turks have long had a bad reputation for heavy smoking. In Italian language they say "fumare come Turco" (to smoke like a Turk) to describe a heavy smoker. Thank god we have now a cigarette ban enforced by law. Not so good as US but not so bad either. But it has not been so easy to put that law into effect. There were still dirty trick played by huge tabacco cartels. Even they had then pesident of USA father Bush to call our then president Özal to veto a cigarrette banning law accepted by our parliament in 1992. They still play their dirty tricks (see here for example).
It´s surprising that Russia still have no cigarette ban for its citizens. More than that, their finance minister considers getting more tax from their citizens by encouraging more consumption.
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