Russia's economy has grown at an average of 7% over the past five years.
The dollar income per capita has risen by nearly 29% each year over the same period - that's faster that China. Whoa!
How would you like a 29% raise each year for the past five years? Of course, we wouldn't want to start at the level of most Russians, would we?
So, what are Russians doing with all that money?
Foreign car sales motored up 57% over 2004 and six times what it was in 2001.
FORD, GM and DAIMLER-CHRYSLER might be happy to know that.
Mobile phone ownership has mushroomed to 80 million, almost 60% of the population. But then the people on the east coast are still 8 time zones away..so, be careful when you call. There were only 3 million users just 6 years ago. Holy cow!
And the Russians are doing all of this buying on an average salary of $300/month.
No, I didn't miss a zero. It's just $300 (three hundred dollars) month. I saw a woman spend that much on DORITOS yesterday at the local SAFEWAY .
Maybe the Russians can teach us how to live more within our means.
What do you think?
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