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Lada-krise

Nach dem wiederholten Stopp der Montagebänder geht im „russischen Detroit“, der Stadt Togliatti an der Wolga, die Angst um. Im Januar brach brach die Autoproduktion im Reich der Ladas im Jahresvergleich um desaströse 80 Prozent ein.

Russlands Autoindustrie legt Wert auf Tradition. Selbst in der Hauptstadt Moskau bieten Händler bis heute fabrikneue Ladas als modernisierte Nachbauten des Fiat 124 an. Der kleine Italiener war immerhin Europas Auto des Jahres – allerdings schon vor mehr als 40 Jahren.

Von der Wärme Italiens ist in der 1000 Kilometer östlich von Moskau gelegenen Lada-Stadt Togliatti, benannt nach dem italienischen Kommunistenführer Palmiro Togliatti, nichts zu spüren. In bitterer Winter-Kälte haben sich einige Dutzend Arbeiter mit Plakaten vor die Tore des Automobilwerks gestellt. „Wir Arbeiter kämpfen für unsere Rechte“, steht auf einem Schild. Die meisten der Demonstranten sind Frauen. „Mein Lohn reichte bislang gerade so zum Leben. Nun weiß ich wirklich nicht, wo das alles enden wird“, sagt die 26-jährige Anna Semjonowa, eine alleinerziehende Mutter.

In fact all people are about equally greedy and equally altruistic. The trouble with government programs is that they are monopolies. This means that no matter how bad the service, no matter how overpaid the employees, no matter how pathetically outdated or irrelevant their organization, the public are forced to support it anyways, and will be thrown in jail or even killed if they refuse to support it.

And who do these monopolies hurt more than anyone else? Poor people, of course. The rich can avoid crappy public schools and health care waiting lists by buying private services. The poor are forced to put their kids in lousy schools and wait for months to get treated for things like cancer and heart disease. And why is that? Because the “altruists” in the government decided that it's a lot more lucrative in the long run to build up fat, highly-paid and unresponsive bureaucracies than it is to offer lean and cost-effective services. And the really funny thing is, it is because of “the poor people” that all these expensive, ineffective monopolies were created in the first place.

The best way to fix health care, for example, is (1) do away with government funding, and (2) end the doctor licensing monopoly which is nothing but a cartel to give a small group of doctors sky-high salaries by severely limiting the number of practitioners. Health care is not inherently expensive. But monopolies ARE inherently expensive, wasteful and unfair.

But I was a kid then, in my 20s, newly married. At that time, I *was* what I bought. My consumerism was my self-esteem. Thank goodness I grew up!

But with respect to people doing as they wish, I'd agree with you — except for one thing. People who work as clerks and cashiers in stores are often the least able to decide whether they work on a Sunday. The owners, the board of directors, the executives, the upper management of the store might choose to stay home on a Sunday to spend quality time. But the people providing you customer service usually have two choices: work or lose your job.

It's not that Canadians aren't hardworking. I think they just used to be less brainwashed by the cult of consumerism than Americans were. When I first came here, Canadians were their families, their friends, their town.

Sadly, I think you'd be much more comfortable up here now. You can shop 'til you drop. Our loss.

Let people spend time with their families of their own free will, and I will consume, of mine.

Those are all reasons why I despised living in Canada. Mindless consumerism and profits are under-rated, especially when all those nice toys such as Kindles, PSP's, Palm Pilots, and iPods are placed out of your reach because you live in an economically and culturally stagnant backwater like Manitoba or Saskatchewan.

Some of us don't mind a little human civilization and progress!