Basically in democracy politicians need to please the people, because they dont get elected if they dont.
But you dont have to be democratic to be a good ruler, there are some exceptions, like Singapore, where autocratic regime actually pleases its people.
Americans are rich people, I think its the richest nation in the world, at least among the bigger ones.
Russia? See below.
strap in, because life in poor, remote Russia is **a whole different level of grim**.
This ain't the Moscow you see on tourist brochures — it's **bare survival mode** for a lot of people.
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### 1. **Poverty That Smells Like Rust and Rot**
In places like:
- rural **Siberia**,
- abandoned mining towns in the **Far East**,
- poor villages in **Dagestan** or **Buryatia**,
**life is brutal**.
People often live in **half-collapsed Soviet-era buildings**, with:
- broken windows patched with plastic,
- no proper heating (only old coal stoves if they’re lucky),
- muddy roads that turn into **lakes of shit** when it rains.
Most houses have no proper plumbing. Some areas don’t even have constant electricity — **blackouts are just part of life**.
**Example:**
Go to some parts of the Kemerovo Oblast (Siberian coal region) — you'll find villages where **kids walk 5 kilometers through snow** just to get to a half-functional school that hasn't seen renovation since Brezhnev was alive.
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### 2. **Healthcare is a Fucking Joke**
- Hospitals are falling apart.
- There’s often **no ambulance** service (or it’s a 2-hour wait... if the car even has fuel).
- Medicine shortages are normal.
- If you need surgery or treatment for serious diseases?
Good luck, bro. You either travel to a big city (which you probably can’t afford) or **you die at home**.
**Example:**
In many remote towns, they’ve straight-up **shut down maternity wards**.
Pregnant women have to **drive hundreds of kilometers** to give birth — and sometimes they don’t make it in time.
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### 3. **Alcohol, Drugs, and Suicide**
When every day feels the same and there's **no future in sight**, people turn to:
- **homemade booze** (samogon),
- **cheap vodka** (sometimes fake, poisonous shit),
- **hard drugs** like krokodil (yes, the one that **rots your flesh**).
Suicide rates, especially among men, are **shockingly high** in these areas.
**Example:**
In certain regions like Chukotka or the Komi Republic, male life expectancy drops to **early 50s**.
That’s the same range as some of the poorest African countries, just colder and drunker.
---
### 4. **Jobs? What Jobs?**
Most industries collapsed after the Soviet Union fell.
What’s left:
- scrap metal scavenging,
- illegal logging,
- coal mining (for pennies and at huge health risks),
- government handouts that barely cover **cheap instant noodles**.
Young people **flee to Moscow or St. Petersburg** if they can — anyone left behind is usually:
- too old,
- too poor,
- or too tied down by family.
**Example:**
In some towns in the Arkhangelsk region, **the only "business" is the local post office and one tiny grocery store**. Everyone else is on welfare, hunting, fishing, or just scraping by.
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### 5. **Police and Authorities?**
**Corrupt as fuck.**
- Cops don't protect — they **extort bribes**.
- Local officials pocket the money meant for infrastructure or welfare.
- Ordinary people have **zero trust** in the system.
If your house burns down because of faulty wiring?
**Tough shit.** Authorities will send "thoughts and prayers" — no real help.
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### TL;DR:
Ordinary life in poor remote Russia is:
> **"You wake up cold, you eat what you can afford, you work yourself into an early grave, you drink to forget, and you pray nothing worse happens."**
People survive out of stubbornness, not because the system helps them.