Thanks to the informative capabilities of the media, money can no longer love silence as it was before, and social inequality in Russia can be observed with the naked eye. Although now no one knows the exact number of rich people in the country, since Rosstat does not keep a record of welfare. True, there are magazines such as Forbes, and rating agencies abroad work hard. But it was not through their efforts that social inequality in Russia became a key problem of our state. It is enough to go outside so that everything becomes clear.
Wealth concentration
Income social inequality in Russia is huge: it is our country, according to Credit Suisse, that holds the first place in terms of concentration of assets: one percent of economic families have two thirds of all available money. And the Boston Consulting Group (an international analytical company) lists 32, 000 Russian families that managed to become dollar millionaires within a year (according to these data, 0.4% of all the country's families, and specifically, only 216, 300 people are dollar millionaires out of 144, 500, 000)
The concentration of capital is extremely high. This is one of the main features of modern Russia. Social inequality in connection with the global crisis should have decreased, but the incredible thing is happening - it is growing. Last year, the number of millionaire families in our country did not lead on a global scale - 13th place (although super-rich households with an income of more than $ 100, 000, 000 took fifth place in terms of quantity). Now the number of ultra-rich has grown by 14% - 536 families. In terms of this indicator, ahead of Russia is only Germany with 881 families, China with 983 super-affluent families, Great Britain - 1044 there, and, of course, the USA - 4754.
But these figures need to be considered wrong. Many foreign rating agencies do it right by comparing the incomes of the richest and poorest part of society in order to more accurately find the boundaries of social inequality in modern Russia. But here, "money and silence" prevails in the fight against transparency and publicity. You can observe only the very top - the tip of the iceberg, since it is impossible to fully take into account all the wealth of the upper social layer - assets are not only financial. Yes, and no one can appreciate the poor, all measurements are rightly called one-sided and primitive. In fact, the number of poor exceeds the declared amount by at least 2.5 times. The statistics here are powerless (in principle, nobody really needs the truth, since nobody is going to restore the "status quo").
What does the statistics say?
Far more than 18 million people in our country currently live not just poorly. They are below the line, they are beggars. These indicators are from statistics, which cannot but have an error. And usually they "sin" in the direction of well-being. Let us recall about exceeding the declared amount by 2.5 times and estimate the real number of those who have incomes below the subsistence level. But the most interesting thing in these figures is that social inequality in Russia is constantly increasing, and the curve goes up sharply. There are more and more dollar millionaires, beggars, too, only an order of magnitude.
Even according to official statistics, the wages of ten percent of the highest paid employees are sixteen times higher than the salaries of the ten lowest paid. It does not take into account a variety of hidden income. There is no official data where these "sixteen times" are replaced by completely different numbers - people get less than forty, or even forty-five times! In France, Germany, Austria, such a coefficient does not exceed the figure 7, more often - below. In the United States, it equals 10. With our numbers, it’s time to fundamentally solve the problems of poverty and socio-economic inequality in Russia, since this signal has long warned of great social danger.
Most importantly, the growth of personal wealth of the richest people in the country does not mean at all it, the country, prosperity: there have been no investments in the Russian economy, there are no, there is only an increase in quotes that are posted on financial platforms that operate with securities abroad. This is where the high level of social inequality in Russia comes from. Capital is increasingly being exported abroad, offshore frauds are flourishing, even our millionaires are successfully circumventing tax barriers in this way.
Taxes
The main part of the problem of social inequality in modern Russia is taxation. Although, at first glance, everyone is equal - both the nurse in the oncology clinic and the oil tycoon pay the state the same - all the same 13% of the income tax. Social tax is levied on a regressive scale. Authorities do not just know about it. They support it. Otherwise, real incomes of the richest people would have been limited by progressive taxes (by the way, valid in all developed countries). This measure, experts say (we have such an All-Russian center that studies the standard of living), would help the poorest people survive by increasing their income to forty percent a year, and the number of beggars would decrease in our country.
Since there is an economic crisis in the world, the state decided to program budget financing differently (pension reform with an increase in the retirement age, changes in housing and communal services tariffs, increased taxes on value added, which kills any business, etc.). There are a huge number of programs, but not one of them is aimed at helping poor people. Therefore, officials have no reason to think not about themselves, but about people.
They are increasingly saying: “The state owes you nothing!”, “Not expensive products, but you earn a little!” etc. This suggests that social inequality is growing in Russia, that the authorities have taken a course not to reduce the number of poor and not to destroy the offshore economy. They are slowly accustoming their own citizens to the idea that the state will not really care about them.
Reasons and examples
It is necessary to support industries where high added value, industry, raw materials are processed independently, only then high unemployment in the country will decrease, new cooperative ties will appear, and as a result, tax revenues will increase, the state will strengthen. However, no progress is being made in this direction. Moreover, it is not profitable for the rich, and the causes of social inequality in Russia will only multiply. The ruling class really likes just this state of things, it is not fundamentally interested in any changes, since the import of raw materials contributes to its most rapid enrichment. And while domination will belong to this layer of society, the country will not develop. And the poor people will not get better - there is no chance.
Examples of social inequality in Russia can be cited endlessly. The richest and poorest do not have the opportunity to meet and discuss the situation. As many as 17% of the survey respondents answered sociologists that they had never seen a single poor person in Russia. This strata of society are at different poles and have no common ground. But 36% of respondents confidently replied that they considered that the plight of themselves, their friends, relatives and acquaintances, namely poverty, which occurred as a result of inhumane economic reforms. That is why unemployment began, the financial situation lost stability (many recalled that the state literally robbed its people three times, and pension reform was the fourth case in the last quarter century).
In addition, social guarantees are declining, rapidly approaching zero, the state has actually abandoned the social security of the needy, which is what the deputies and state officials who are so far blamed for their speeches are talking about. Soon, apparently, they will no longer blame them for this. After all, Anatoly Chubais, who cynically declared millions of “not fit into the market, ” does not regret anything in his life. Well, maybe, except in those cases when it was possible to "earn" even more.
The statistics of social inequality in Russia must probably begin with this. The former gymnast in the public service, Olga Glatskikh, did not say anything because of a lack of intelligence, but Anatoly Borisovich Chubais was not afraid to tell the truth, because he feels that he is protected by the state. Unlike ordinary people.
Some statistics
The problem of social inequality in Russia has appeared, according to statistics, for many reasons, intertwined in the fate of people is bizarre and inexplicable. First of all, these are unfavorable life circumstances that appeared against the backdrop of a loss of socio-economic stability. Most of all, poor health is gaining in the characteristics of poverty - as much as 38%. The statistics are silent about why the Soviet people who were distinguished by good health suddenly deteriorated, that is, the environment, the absence and price inaccessibility of quality products, and ongoing stresses are not taken into account.
In second place - personal turmoil, confluence of circumstances, family unhappiness - 25%. Where did all this come from "not fit into the market"? From the banditry of the two five-year plans of the 90s, when millions of people died in the country literally for no reason, more than in the five-year period of the 30s with its GULAG. In third place - low qualifications, lack of education and living in a regressive region - 21%. Again - it was not before education, teachers from schools massively went "into business" - to sell socks at the bazaar, and there was no place to acquire qualifications - all enterprises were closed in the 90s. There are almost no prosperous regions, except perhaps the oil and gas North and Moscow, and those are not for everyone.
Kind statistics among the causes of the plight of people who went into poverty also indicate drug addiction with alcoholism - 32%, inappropriateness with laziness - 17%, unwillingness to change - 15%, and even individual bad luck - 8%. Next come the diverse interpretations of poverty and poverty. And not a word that a prosperous country at the end of the 80s was betrayed, plundered and sold. Official statistics also recognize that it is necessary to fight poverty and poverty, but for this it is necessary to accurately determine the scale of this disaster, which so far has not been possible. And therefore it is too early to take measures.
At the stage of denial
How does psychological defense work in the human body when problems arise? First, we deny everything, then we get angry, then we bargain when it doesn’t work out as we wanted — we get depressed and, finally, nothing remains — we have to accept the problem as it is. When the growth of social inequality began in Russia (and this happened immediately after the transition from a planned economy to a market economy), the property difference was so low that it could easily be ignored, that is, not taken into account. However, opponents of the USSR replaced not only numbers, but the whole country as a whole.
At the moment, Russian experts are talking in a foam at the mouth that there is no problem of dividing the company according to financial criteria. Everything is within the framework and differs little from the same Sweden, Great Britain, Austria. Slightly better than in China, slightly worse than in the USA. Apparently, our authorities really want to detain the people in the first stage of accepting the problem, in the stage of denial. Because in fact, the problem exists, and it is recognized by all the world institutes of sociology and economics.
The country is moving forward - to the past!
At the time of glasnost and perestroika, the privileges of certain Soviet party bonzes were condemned, and loud absolute equality was required. However, these cunning people said one thing, but did something completely different, which, however, continues today. The growth of social inequality in Russia at the end of the 80s made an unimaginable leap, and in our country today this indicator still continues to pick up, although more gradually. The income gap between the rich and the poor is equal to 1905. Exactly the same situation was a hundred-odd years ago.
In 2016, researchers at the World Economy Lab (including the famous Tom Picketty, author of the bestselling book in economics, “Capital of the 21st Century”) calculated the growth of social inequality in Russia, and it turned out that half of the population in the poorest part of it has a national income of only 17% and 10% of the richest - 45.5%. Almost the same figures were submitted to the sovereign by his fiscal authorities in 1905: there is a historical document - a table showing the distribution of income when the Empire planned to introduce an income tax.
A few more numbers
In 2016, the income of one adult Russian citizen averaged € 23, 200 per year (about 55, 000 rubles per month). But this, as they say, is the average temperature in the hospital, since incomes are distributed extremely unevenly. The lower 10% of the population received € 7, 800 a year, and the upper - € 105, 500. In 1990, the richest (10%) had less than twenty-five percent of national income, and already in 1996 this figure was 45%. The poor, from 30%, slid to 10%.
The most favorable period of the country's life was the years from 1966 to 1970: 31% of nat. income accounted for the poor, 21.6% - for the wealthy. But from 1998 to 2008, mainly rich people ensured economic growth: the share of national income for them rose to 52%.
Returning once again to Tom Picketti and his colleagues in the economics laboratory, it should be noted that the authors of the study insist on the effectiveness of taxation on a progressive scale. This will not only help combat economic inequality. After tax, it is clearly reduced. In addition, citizens with high earnings are discouraged in hoarding.
But instead of competent taxation, the government financially encourages oligarchs who have suffered losses due to sanctions. While in the country, old pensioners living in rural areas have nothing to buy firewood (they need from 8, 000 to 12, 000 thousand rubles for the winter, and their pensions are more than 7, 000, and in order not to freeze, they will have to spend several months limit yourself in everything, including in medicines and even in food).
There will be no progressive taxation scale!
In 2016, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets suddenly received information that the government will nevertheless introduce some elements of the progressive scale of taxation of individuals, and this issue is already being discussed, and citizens at the very bottom of the scale will be exempt from personal income tax (those who whom incomes have not grown to the level of a living wage). However, in 2017, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev confessed that there was no such issue on the government’s agenda. And on television, citizens watched with interest the interview, where it was said that the income gap was, of course, large, and a progressive taxation scale was probably needed, but now it’s impossible to do it.
However, the problem of social inequality in Russia arises from another, even more significant one. This is the pace of development of the Russian economy. So far, they are negative, and no one knows how long the period of stagnation and recession will last. Judging by examples from other countries, this can drag on for decades. Although there are examples in the history of our country: what were the leaps in the economy after the world wars! Then five years was enough. Now thirty is not enough. And if all this continues this way (and there are no prerequisites for changes), Russia will lose even the unenviable status of a country with average incomes that it has today. In this case, it is possible to narrow the income gap. Not the poor will get rich, but the rich will lose some of their wealth.
