О ДОХОДАХ И ЦЕНАХ КАК АРГУМЕНТАХ БЛАГОСОСТОЯНИЯ РОССИЙСКИХ ГРАЖДАН

Abstract

The article is inspired by the declared excessive optimism of the adherents of the Higher School of Economics about the successful passage of the crisis in modern Russia for the first time in the post-Soviet period, optimism that causes Cartesian doubts. If, for example, we consider the dynamics of the basic foundation – the Russian economy, then its growth potential, even according to official Rosstat data, was exhausted back in 2008, which caused a chronic decline in disposable income of the population. of course, we will support the optimists, Russia has been in a crisis since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in a more favorable position compared to countries with more deve- loped economies «due to» the deformed structure compared to the Soviet period of the national economy, its raw materials orientation. There are very few reasons for optimism, if we take into account the art of Rosstat, as servants of two «masters– - the government and the people, to underestimate the scale of the fall in the real sector of the economy, rising prices and, what is very important and alarming for households, inflation rates, especially food, according to national statistics, exceeding 20% year-on-year. Statistics, the authors believe, should be independent and therefore Rosstat should be reassigned to the State Duma. Neither is the direction in which Russia is moving, the direction indicated by teachers from the International Monetary Fund/ IMF/ and other global organizations, encouraging. For which the country deserves their generous praise. A number of conditions imposed on Russia and recommendations of the IMF are being considered, including a reduction in the number of Russian banks, inflation targe- ting, a flexible exchange rate and the so-called budget rule, a possible further increase in the retirement age, etc. The article analyzes the current socio-economic reality in Russia, adequately reflected in quantifiable macroeconomic, social and demographic indicators, significantly «undermined” by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The dynamics of the growth of prices and incomes of the population (who “ran faster” from 2013 to 2020 and why) are presented as the main arguments of the welfare function of the country’s population. The underlying causes of the record price growth in Russia for socially significant food products are revealed and the main directions of not only their taming, but also their stabilization and even reduction are substantiated.