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Mark Dolan's avatar

Kind of a fun thread of statistics and causality. I would bite if someone brought this up in conversation. Maybe Russia is gonna have a lot of lawyers graduating soon :)

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Stephanie Losi's avatar

Good point! Whatever allows exceptions/deferrals in Russia, I think you will see more people doing that thing. (I don't know if college/grad school qualifies.)

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Mark Dolan's avatar

The Russian diaspora (similar to the Chinese previously) for decades is an interesting map of lost opportunity and innovation and largely rotted those countries inside out. Those with means, aptitude or simply the "wrong race or ethnicity" earned the Golden Ticket and got out. One of my favorite examples is Sergei Brin and how he ended up at Stanford at the right time -- so much due to hatred, mistrust and bigotry. I would imagine after the redistribution to the Oligarchs of an Empire everyone with means can get out and do as they please. Russia, especially is a sad state of affairs. Now the second generation of lost dreams and just hanging on to a bit of an extractive industry economy. The decline of a Superpower is a dangerous, unpredictable affair. Maybe far from the point of your post but the reaction of people when their options are bad (ie. Vietnam) can be an interesting problem to study.

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Stephanie Losi's avatar

Your last sentence would make a great article in and of itself!

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Mark Dolan's avatar

For me, it was your article that inspired it. Thank you.

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