

Russia's future - The cracks appear - sasvari
http://www.economist.com/node/21541401

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ck2
Maybe, just maybe, there isn't a single country in the world qualified right
now to be giving out advice on how to run another country.

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daliusd
Short answer: Canada

Long answer: "Economist" is not the country. It would be too brave to say that
"Economist" represents any country at all. Another problem: mixing economical,
social and other problems into one pot is not good thing to do.

Is it bad to take advice about marriage from neighbor who had to sold one of
two cars because of crisis?

Therefore why not Canada?

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ck2
Canada (still) does some things well but correct me if I am wrong, they are
feeling the grip of a conservative movement lately and they are trying to push
their oil pipeline onto the USA by threatening to sell it elsewhere cheaper.

The author of that article goes to great lengths to appear neutral and just
cover the facts but again, whatever perspective the author is coming from - I
don't see too many countries with a working model right now, and the ones that
are getting by typically have a big positive in their favor - no massively
funded military, so no military industrial complex welfare.

~~~
daliusd
What do you mean by "working model" ? Economical crisis in USA looks
completely different from economical, human rights and political crises in
Russia. In country I live economical crisis and diplomatic situation (bad
relations with Russia) leads to situation that is different from Russia and
USA.

While we don't define what is "working model" it is empty talk. Is it
happiness index - then let's act like Denmark. Are we talking about country
that lived well through economical crisis - Canada, China or Brasil. Should we
look at good human rights and living conditions: then only Canada (maybe
Brasil for some people).

P.S. Canada is 13rd in the world by military expenditure.

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ajuc
Don't treat this as being rude, I'm just curious - why does Canada need so big
military expenses?

In my (uninformed) opinion Canada is as safe, as anybody can be in modern
world - ocean on each border with one exception - USA, that is friendly, and
if it's not, Canada don't stand a chance with them anyway.

~~~
garyrichardson
It doesn't. As a Canadian, I can say there is always great debate about this,
and especially now.

Our current Conservative leaders are trying to push through the purchase of 65
F-35 fighters. These are the same jets the US military is delaying or
considering scrapping at this point due to cost overruns.

The estimates for costs on these jets is over 30B Canadian dollars.

In my opinion, our military is a glorified search and rescue team at home and
a police force++ abroad. Canada needs an armed forces that is good with
dealing with national disasters and supporting human crisis. We should be
investing in helicopters and ships. If the day comes that Russia or the USA
decides to take our natural resources, 65 fighter jets aren't going to make
any difference compared to their vast armies. So why not invest in technology
that can be used to address the actual problems we face?

