the real Russia, not as shown by the Media.

Life is beautiful as long as you don't have Spetsnaz paying Crimean's in U.S. Cash to start a war that allows Russia to annex the Crimea.

AboveAlpha

 

It's only your opinion about everyone's dream

Let parents you mentioned above dream first about to have an enought income to pay for MIT

No. Most probably you talk about your friend from Moscow who whant kid to stay in Moscow and get high income once he got a degree
Or you treat 30.000-60.000 rubls i.e. $500-1000 per moth as a povetry. In fact it's normal in Russia since we don't have an expensive real estate and we don't have to get a credit to pay for education.

 

If you live in Massachusetts the cost of going to a Massachusetts based College, University or Institute is MUCH MORE INEXPENSIVE than if you are coming from oversea's and a bit less expensive if you are a U.S. Citizen.

There are a large number of Scholarships available that will pay for school such as Academic, Sports...etc.

There used to be 3 Tests a student needed to score high upon plus have outstanding High School Grades just to get in to a Very Good College or University but even in my state U-Mass....which is a massive University along with another with huge student enrolement....Boston University.....well both have enrolement in the 2014-2015 school year of over 30,000 in 2015....these massive Universities offer an education that is far ahead and above 99.99% of other Universities around the Globe.

As example Massachusetts' oldest post-secondary institution is Harvard University, founded in 1636. Tracing its routes back to 1839, Boston University is the state's largest institution of higher learning in terms of enrollment, as it had 32,603 students as of the fall of 2013...and The University of Massachusetts Amherst is Massachusetts' largest public university, with an enrollment of 28,518 students in 2013 and now over 30,000 in 2015.

A student must now take 2 Tests as you must take the SAT....a PLACEMENT TEST...and I.Q. Tests are no longer required.

I scored 1580 on my SAT out of a possible total of 1600.

My Placement Test I scored in the top 1/100th of 1%....or .01%.

I had to take an I.Q. which I scored very high but I do not discuss my score as it breeds competition with others and besides there are many other forms of Intelligence besides Analytic.

My High School Grades were straight A's.

Because of this and because of that damn I.Q. Test and even when I was a Jr. in High School which is when a kid takes these tests....we had in our Guidance Dept. a Computer System with software where all your Grades and Test Scores and your personal interests were imputted and the Computer printed out a recommendation for the types of JOBS and FIELD'S of study and work that your abilities seemed best suited to doing.

This of course does not force a student to follow that computer readout's advice but after mine came out....the next thing I know is I have a recruiter from every single U.S. Military Branch as well as U.S. Agencies asking me for an interview.

My Dad was/is a U.S. Military Officer who is retired but once an Officer you are ALWAYS AN OFFICER!!

My Mom was...."CIVILIAN"....in the manner the quotes denote and with the help of another relative of mine who was also...."CIVILIAN"....in the same manner as my Mom....I was able to CUT A GREAT DEAL which payed for my extensive Schooling and Education in multile fields and in return I remained..."CIVILIAN"....and did JOBS on occasion and as I have told you my very first JOB was to study Soviet Leader Yuri Andropov.

Some of the U.S. Colleges and Institutes I went to if not for the fact I was born in Mass. and was allowed in without without having to pay...are Colleges, Institutes and Universities that are EXPENSIVE IN THE EXTREME to go to and MONEY is not is what it is all about as there are people all over the world who have Money....you just have to be one of the best and brightest to get in.

I don't care if your Father is a BILLIONAIRE.....you don't get into MIT or HARVARD or AMHERST or SMITH or several hundred other BEST IN THE WORLD U.S. Schools unless you have what it takes.

AboveAlpha

 

By the way....a single person is considered living in POVERTY if they make less than $20,000 a year.

AboveAlpha

 

Oil is a big part of the Russia economy. They are the leading supplier of oil to the EU, outside of the middle east. That is why they invaded Crimea, and back Ukrainian rebels. Ukraine was going to join the EU. Ukraine's high oil reserves belonging to the EU would have killed Russia's control over Eurasia's oil market.

 

Welcome to the US

 

Kid you mentioned is not a genious definetely If he was than he could have an experience in interesting projects and international students competions and many companies whant to offer a job for him. He would not care about to transfer to US to get a good job since salary in RU is low. Instead companies would offer transfer to US for him.

If he dreams about to get a big salary but don't care about to get as much experience as he can then he is not a good engineer. US is not a dream land with high salaries anymore - there's a high compentition so he could fail easily.

 

There is extremely high competition for Jobs but due to the size of the U.S. Infrastructure...the largest by far on the planet....we are always looking for Engineers specific to bridge, road and highway construction.

The U.S. moves over 30 times the amount of Rail Freight than all of Europe Combined.

Plus the 100's of Thousands of U.S. Roads, Routes and Highways are so vast an Engineer educated in that field will do well here.

Even an assistant manager at a convenience store is going to be making about $34,000 a year.

AboveAlpha

 

that isn't a problem, it is simply that Russian degree holders take advantage of the both systems: high US salaries and no Tax Department after you back home.

don't need to get paid more in Russia, because you spend less money here than in the West; but if you're so greedy...

did you check the number of Russians that later returned home?.. at least four of the people i know went West in the 1990s but then returned to Russia.

how many of them apply for US citizienship?.. that's the point, because i saw the statistics for US citizienship applications by year, and its not millions.

not true. US education is so bad that US economy has to rely on foreign degree holders... so you don't have to be mistaken about what US education is advertised to be and what it actually is.

 

wonder how you guys whenever praising West life are failing to mention taxes, tolls, healthcare insurance fees etc. you have to pay there.

 

Since you are not an engineer you do not see pitfalls. To work in US you should know technologies and rules of US. But graduate of russian institute knows technologies and rules of Russia.
There's no way for graduate who has no experience of being interviewed successfully to get an offer of stable and reliable company.

7/11 or McDonalds is much more preferable job for person who has no experience in US

BTW: You was wrong with povetry. Official line is $11,770 for one person in US 2015.

 

There is an amount for a single person in a family and a single person in a family.

Recheck your source.

AboveAlpha

 

Look at this http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/15poverty.cfm

 

Returning back to Russia.
There's a good channel 'Real Russia' on youtube.

Here's a sample episode that shows a Dacha ( Summer house ) and a Banya ( bath house ) of an average family.
[video=youtube;WhYEUf1j61g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhYEUf1j61g[/video]

 

Like I said...it is a figure for a single person in a family.

If you are talking about a single person with no family in a household the figure is about $20,000.

AboveAlpha

 

That desert looks super good Sharik, what would you say are some of the most typical Russian meals over there?

Us Americans just steal everyone elses I guess the good ol' American Hamburger though....

Anyways, tell me some Russian dishes I should research and cook with my girlfriend would ya?

 

Rise up your education Singe person and one person household are equivalent.
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sconcerns/fam/fammethods.htm
And check my link again - the name of the column is "Family/household"
Have you ever deal with offical statistics ?

 

first of all, most and foremost, it is Borscht - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht - a rather complicated dish to cook... i have to admit myself unable to cook it, for every time i tried to, the taste was not quite that. Shashlik - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shashlik - might be easier to handle. Olivier salad - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_salad - is easiest to cook, just make sure to use the best mayonaise available.

 

Single Person is a single person HOUSEHOLD....not APARTMENT!!!

THAT is the difference!

When you own your own home you have to pay Property Taxes and mine I believe are close to $18 per thousand annually for my home in Western Massachusetts this is assessed at $678,000.....so I pay about $12,000 a year in taxes for this home.

I also own other properties and I must pay property tax on all of them as they exist in several U.S. States and some are rental and some are investment.

So if a person owns a home that is assessed by their Town at $120,000 which is a VERY MODEST HOME....and as my property tax in my town is I think $17.78 a Thousand...that person who owns a modest home must pay $2133.60 a year in Taxes which is broken up into 12 payments along with their morgage payment or if they own their home outright like I do and do not have a morgage they must make 4 payments a Quarter...every 3 months.

Plus there is a 6.25% SALES TAX on all goods that are not food, Rx Medicine, clothing, womens tampons or sanitary napkins.....but if you buy prepared food their is a Sales Tax and their is Sales Tax on Animal Food.

Plus you have to pay both State and Federal Income Taxes plus Social Security and all sorts of other taxes.

The GOOD THINGS about living in the United States is Gasoline only costs right now about $2.59 a Gallon.

A Husband and a Wife both working and Middle Class as usually both will have a College Education will own a home that is on average worth about $250,00 to $300,000....with at least 3 cars usually 1 sports car....1 SUV or Truck such as a Ford F-240 4x4 and one Gas Efficient Vehicle such as a Camary as there are more Toyota's built in the United States than in Japan thus funny thing is we actually EXPORT TOYOTA'S to Japan and other Nations.

Average number of kids....2.2.

Average Savings....after 10 years of Marriage....$175,000.

After 20 years.....$500,000.

After 30 years....$1.3 Million.

Plus most...80% Middle Class Families own either a Harley or an ATV or a Boat.

Combined average Middle Class Income of Husband and Wife.....$170,000 to $250,000 per year.

The thing is if you are willing to work hard....you can really have anything you want.

Both of sides of my family were very poor when they came to the United States and one of my Great Grandfathers was born here thus I am 5th Generation American.

All of my Grandparents were born here and they worked hard and had a good life and made enough money to put my Mother and Father through College.

Both my Mom and Dad worked very hard and so did I and I am not extremely wealthy but I EARNED what I have and I try to give back as much as I can as I created and still help run 2 Non-Profit Charities.

When I see the hopelessness in the eye's of my Russian Friends it kills me!!!

You tend to BOND with a person who's JOB it is to possibly KILL YOU and we were all SO HAPPY when Russia became a Democracy!!!

I was over there at the time as I was called in as an Advisor by the Yeltsin Camp right after those DRUNK COMMUNIST IDIOTS got on TV and announced they had arrested Gorby.

That was a DEFINING MOMENT in the history of Russia as those men wanted the CCCP to continue to exist but it couldn't. It was bankrupt and no one was giving them anymore loans as they were not paying money on the loans they already had.

Yeltsin ordered Russian Tanks to fire on the building and I am sure you know the rest of the story.

But I am here to tell you that RUSSIA DOES NOT NEED TO SUFFER LIKE IT IS NOW SUFFERING!!!

The United States and Canada are ready willing and able to assist Russia and with our help within a single year the Russian Economy will lift itself out of a Depression.

Within only 2 years with our help the Russian Economy will begin to BOOM!

Within 5 years the average Russian Income will DOUBLE.

The U.S. and Canada does not need to bring in thousands of troops like China will do and I cannot BELIEVE Putin is going to allow this!!!

We can use RUSSIAN WORKERS.....and train them how to run High Tech. American Systems.

There is only one person in the way....PUTIN.

AboveAlpha

 

Here is also, the real Russia:



http://www.themoscowtimes.com/busin...s-more-russians-slip-into-poverty/523422.html

 

Yes, but pictures are old. Especially third one.
And about first one - it's easy to find beggar in any country. For instance there are a lot of them in NYC or Munich.
I saw them in Stokholm as well.

 

Have you seen any mentioning about apartment or property in my posts? I tell you about income only. In Russia you can have $500 income but own an apartement. Example is my parents family. They have $500 per moth, electricity/water/heat costs about $40 per month. They do not need to have a car. Property tax costs about $40 per year. So they are able to make savings!

It's not middle class - it's rich. Return to reality! - median household income in US for 2 person household is about $60.000 per year.
I would recommend you to learn statistics first to avoid big discrepancies in values you provided.

How can they feel themself when they have a conversation with the rich US person ? You are not a middle class - you are rich.

It looks like you think that Russia is still living in Yeltsin times.

 

Tell your friends that I'm familiar with 3 russian families who relocated to US. Two of them relocated in 90s and one relocated recently.
No one of them has income more than $120k per year. And persons who have more than $100k per year are highly skilled engineers.

Let your friends ( especially graduate kid ) forget about $250,00 to $300,000 at all

 

Russia has a great deal of poverty, many more racist murders than the USA, etc etc...

and 300 Russians own 50% of Russia's wealth.

 

In 1990 the best western (free market) economists in the world warned Russia not to employ the capitalist economic system of private landownership. Russia ignored their advice and ensured that Russia will have to endure yet another economic collapse.

Here is the letter that those economists sent to Mikhail Gorbachev (signed by four Nobel prize winning economists): https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Open_letter_to_Mikhail_Gorbachev_%281990%29