TUCKER CARLSON THINKS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
INTRODUCTION
When Tucker Carlson went to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin it got a lot of attention after all why was a Western guy interviewing a brutal dictator? What got less attention was the fact that he went on a trip to Russia and explored the city of Moscow. While he was in Moscow he said that visiting a Russian grocery store “Radicalized Him” against American politicians because of how much cheaper groceries were in Russia compared to similar items in the United States. That of course only explains part of the story.
RUSSIA IS A POORER COUNTRY COMPARED TO THE UNITED STATES SO GOODS AND SERVICES WILL OBVIOUSLY BE CHEAPER
Tucker Carlson Mentioned how groceries would cost about $400 a month in the US and was only around $104 in Russia for similar items. Yes, Groceries are cheaper in Russia than United States this is probably because Russia had a GDP Per Capita of $12,195 in 2021 compared to the U.S. which had a GDP Per Capita of $70,249 in 2021. Wealthier countries like the United States have higher consumer prices overall because there is so much more economic demand and when people have more disposable income and when there are the same amount of good services and more money in the economy prices rise as a function of supply and demand. Russia is a country that is much poorer than the United States so companies would not be competitive if they were to charge American prices for the same goods and services in a country like Russia. So yes things are more expensive in the United States than Russia, because we are a much wealthier country with a larger economy.
TUCKER FAILS TO POINT OUT THAT AMERICAN SALARIES ARE HIGHER THAN RUSSIAN SALARIES
Tucker mentioned that a month’s worth of groceries is $104 in Russia versus $400 in the United States that is a massive difference but the median household income in Russia is $12,750 compared to $76,770 in the United States so Tucker is not telling the whole story. In 2022 American consumers on average spent 11.3% of their household income on food while the average Russian consumer spent 40% of their household income on food in 2022. So considering higher wages in the United States groceries and other household essentials are more affordable in the United States than in Russia for most consumers. Despite what Tucker Carlson may tell you the average American enjoys a higher standard of than the average Russian. It is also worth noting that in the last quarter, the US economy grew at an inflation-adjusted rate of 3.3% compared to the Russian economy shrinking at an inflation-adjusted rate of -0.8% last quarter.
AMERICA HAS A MUCH BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE THAN RUSSIA
Russia unlike the United States does not have freedom of speech and is run by a brutal dictator who started an unjust war on a democratic country. But even disregarding those facts America has a higher quality of life than Russia unlike what Tucker would tell you. In 2020 Russia had a life expectancy of 71.34 years compared to 77.28 years that same year. In 2019 the United States had a homicide rate of 4.99 per 100K people while Russia had a homicide rate of 7.69 per 100k people. So unlike what Tucker Carlson would tell you Americans are better off than Russians in almost every metric.
CONCLUSION TUCKER CARLSON IS RUSSIAN PROPGANDIST
If Tucker Carlson were honest with his viewers he would not fly to Russia and allow Vladimir Putin to spread all this nonsense but Tucker Carlson never has been and never will be a serious journalist and fact-finder instead he is a racist far-right liar. I felt a need to write this because what Tucker Carlson did was egregiously misleading and it is worth fighting it with facts.
REFERENCES
https://tradingeconomics.com/matrix
https://ourworldindata.org/homicides
https://www.worlddata.info/average-income.php
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=76967
