Warnings of economists that the Russians are switching to survival mode, not mean disaster. On the contrary, reduced costs of money and time for shopping will only go to people on benefits, he said.
According to Rosstat, the share of income directed on purchase of goods and services in 2015 was the lowest in five years. It happened during the recession of themselves revenue by 4% in real terms. Consumption of goods and services declined by 9.1%.
The amount of cash the Russians fell for the first time since at least 2004 (when I started to collect these statistics). For 2015 year they fell to 418 billion rubles.
Another sign of the lack of money that people have stopped massively buying up foreign currency, because now it’s too expensive.
The changing pattern of consumer behaviour — a thing very relative, and it is not necessary to panic from the mere word “survival”, calms the Deputy Dean of the faculty of Economics Leonid Polyakov.
“Standards of consumption change over time. If in some period people wanted, figuratively speaking, to swallow more than the allowed volume of the stomach, the transition to a more sustainable model of consumption might be even useful,” he said, “Reedus”.
For example, says the expert, if the Russians will eat less animal fat and more vegetables, it only will have a positive impact on their health.
However, sociologists and economists perceive this as lowering the quality of life — despite the fact that in the physiological sense it means the opposite, he adds.
Look at the boarding on any flight to the USA, where many of pathologically obese people are physically unable to squeeze into airplane seats. The quality of their life in financial terms is very high.
In the US it is considered perfectly normal to live in debt: the graduate University is usually burdened with educational loans in the $30 — 50 thousand (this is the average annual salary of a young specialist).
“This is the survival mode, but nobody in the US falls in depression,” says Polyakov.
The assessment that the Russians have entered the period of survival, therefore, not quite correct. Must live within your means — i.e. spend less than you earn — this is an axiom not requiring proof.
Those who believed that economic law does not apply, are left with nothing — whether it be the owners of cheap mortgages (subprime morgages) in U.S. currency or the food in Russia.
“Incomes of Russians have decreased, it is an undeniable fact. Yes, we have to tighten our belts and save. But it will teach people more efficiently build their lives. Stop pretending that you belong to the richer social class than actually are. Who are you fooling?” — said the expert.
This phenomenon, incidentally, was described in “12 chairs” — in the images of Ellochka ogress and her husband, who was forced to pay “billionaire” requests tongue-tied wife.
“The Russians should be advised to optimize nutrition model, to go on a diet. Survival model — it does not mean that you will eat less. This means that you will plan costs for shorter time and not to buy durable goods,” explains Polyakov.
And ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes lived in a barrel, but nobody remembers that he complained about the hardships of life.
