
How to steal a Russian airport - sajid
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/opinion/07nocera.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
======
savramescu
The attitude in communist countries after the Fall resembles so much to the
one in "Atlas Shrugged" that it's scary. Goverment really is one big thug who
will only steal. Nice countries, but it's a shame that there are people living
in them. I should know. I live in one.

~~~
dorian-graph
That's what I was thinking too. What will they do when they true business men
run off? Who will they loot then?

~~~
guard-of-terra
By that you assume that there are good "true business men" (those who used to
run Domodedovo) and bad "thugs".

This doesn't reflect reality much. Those are just roles. One day you're a
business man, the next day you participate in state-owned enterprise, the next
day you're the "thug". It's wrong to try and separate good "business men" from
bad "government men" because they're all drawn from the same pool.

Yeah, and both groups "run off" from time to time.

P.S. The notion that Domodedovo was the best airport compared to other Moscow
airports seems to conflict with my experience. It wasn't worse but it wasn't
much better. For example, during the ice rain of late December 2010 it failed
straight on its face, losing power for several hours and being unable to
perform.

------
CWuestefeld
(sorry if this is another one of those "the USA is just as bad", posts, but I
hope it's food for thought)

It sometimes seems to me that the real difference between stories like this
and what we see in the USA is that in the States we've learned to be more
subtle about it.

I offer three examples of how USA government disrespect for the rule of law is
stifling America:

1\. Kelo decision: it seems to have become routine for cities to condemn
viable small businesses to grab land for their big voters. For example, see
Columbia University in NYC.

2\. GM bailout: standard bankruptcy law, determining who should get paid, was
thwarted to give unions (i.e., Democrat voting blocks) favored status. This
creates disincentive for future investment.

3\. Boeing's new plant: the government is trying to block Boeing from moving a
plant from Washington to S. Carolina, saying that their action is intended to
avoid organized labor (duh), and that's illegal.

~~~
mapgrep
The Kelo decision was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court following an appeal of
a decision in the same direction by the Supreme Court of Connecticut.

The Boeing lawsuit is being brought in federal court by the National Labor
Relations Board and remains undecided. It will be subject to the full appeals
process like any other court case.

I find it odd you are citing these as "examples of how USA government
disrespect... the rule of law." Could you elaborate?

~~~
CWuestefeld
_The Kelo decision was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court... The Boeing lawsuit
is being brought in federal court by the National Labor Relations Board..._

The only conclusion I can see in your statements is that the government
defines the law, so if the government does it, it _must_ be within the rule of
law. But obviously that's a tautology.

 _Kelo_ is probably the clearest example of the problem: the government itself
turns on its ear centuries of common law, and the clear and unambiguous text
of the supreme law of the land, the Constitution. The fact that the government
has said that this new definition is what must be considered the law doesn't
change the fact that (a) it flies in the face of the protections that
Americans believed they enjoyed; and (b) created an environment in which we're
all less safe in our property.

But honestly, I think that when I wrote my initial post, when I said "rule of
law", what I was actually thinking was "well-understood principles of property
rights and contract law".

~~~
CWuestefeld
Sorry to reply to myself, but...

It occurs to me that the real response is, "what is the law?". Is the law
simply what the government (viz, the courts and the police) say it is? Or is
the law something deeper, deriving from societal norms, the social contract,
and a shared understanding of moral codes?

------
osipov
It should be noted that the private owners of the airport must have an
excellent PR firm to get NY Times to write a favorable article. In "The
Submarine" essay PG mentioned that his firm never managed to get a NYT
article.

~~~
parfe
I would hardly call the article favorable. Sure it says the airport is well
run and profitable, but that is just an example of how the Russian government
will step in and steal . Not exactly a ringing endorsement for investment.

~~~
osipov
True, this is not a story about generating investment interest but about
attracting attention to the issue and painting the government as a villain.
The story is favorable because it leads the audience to pre-judge the
situation in favor of the current airport owners.

------
tomelders
2 legs good, 4 legs bad.

~~~
tomelders
no George Orwell fans on HN then? I personally see too many parallels between
Russia's versions of Communism and Capitalism. It doesn't matter how they
dress it up, the ruling class are still abusing their positions and calling it
progress.

------
oceanician
So, whilst those moan at UK politicians, at least they're not as bad as this
crazy mob. Quite shocking really!

~~~
nitrogen
Arguments of the form, "It could be worse," unfairly dismiss actual problems
that need actual solving.

~~~
oceanician
Sure - there's a lot of problems that need fully debating and solving. I'd
agree with that. Wonder if there's a list someplace... i.e. solve malaria,
distribute food in africa etc etc

------
pessimist
The article claims that this is the reason Russia has so little innovation. Is
this really true though? Yandex is a great company. VKontakte is dominating
social networking there.

Russian investors (or at least Yuri Milner) appear to be doing extremely well.

~~~
rorrr
Yandex = copy of other search engines (mostly google)

Vkontakte = direct ripoff of facebook

What's the innovation?

~~~
guard-of-terra
Having local search engines, mapping services, dominating webmail platforms
and multiple social networks is itself an innovation. Innovation might happen
when you have those, it would obviously never happen if you don't.

Few countries, mostly asian, dare to sustain that. Rest of the world can not.

~~~
rorrr
Copying is innovation?

Innovation = new idea, new method, new product.

Sorry, your argument is bullshit.

~~~
guard-of-terra
Yes, copying is innovation.

I'm yet to see an example when a community proceeded with copying for an
extensive period of time and didn't come up with innovations. Also I'm yet to
see an example when a community didn't copy things already existing in the
field. It's just not how it works.

E.g. Phonecian alphabet -> hebrew -> greek -> latin, cyrillic. Even hangul
were drawing insights from both hieroglyphs and alphabets.

And, more often than not, "clone of X" means "tl; dr; but it looks like X".
People seldom bother.

