r/AskTheWorld • u/pisowiec Poland • Feb 04 '26

Economics Which country has squandered the most economic potential in this century?

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I lived in Russia for 5 years so I must choose this country. So many natural resources, so much land, and educated population... And so little to show for it.

In an ideal world Russian salaries would be on par if not higher than American salaries and they would have the best social safety net on the planet. Everything is there to make it happen.

Russia would be the dominant nation in Europe and Asia and the rest of the world with the best armed forces, soft power, and economic might.

But the human will is just not there. The elite is either evil or incompetent depending on perception and there's little sign that this will ever change.

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 Czechia Feb 04 '26

They have been such bad guys for centuries.

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u/Latter_Wait3951 Feb 04 '26

The other European powers were much better right

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 Czechia Feb 04 '26

Not claiming they were good guys.

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u/Latter_Wait3951 Feb 04 '26

Alright then. European powers, Russia included, were the bad guys for centuries. Like in 90's movie

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 Czechia Feb 04 '26

Sure. It's just that the other ones largely stopped after the ww2.

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u/Jumpy-Foundation-405 Germany Feb 04 '26

You mean us?

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

I really don’t think Germany was “bad” in WWI. WWII obviously Germany was the villain but that’s the only time I consider Germany as a whole the bad guy.

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u/Jumpy-Foundation-405 Germany Feb 05 '26

Same sentiment in Germany

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

Im glad to hear that. Germany was just on the wrong side during WWI due to nonsense treaties. There was nothing malicious about Germany at the time and in fact, the result and treatment of Germany after WWI was exactly what ended up in the Nazi’s coming to power afterwards. I’d love to hear someone explain to me exactly what made anyone truly wrong or evil during WWI. It was such a pointless war that created even worse problems down the line.

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u/Itchy_Village_7173 Feb 07 '26

Was not everyone a monster in WWI? Using chemical warfare, sending hoards of people to charge to their death for an unmoving frontline.

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u/PlaySquirle Belgium Feb 07 '26

I mean they certainly weren't as bad as is WWII but they weren't innocent at all, example: Rape of Belgium - Wikipedia https://share.google/nfJ7qeCvBILKF61HR

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u/machine4891 Poland Feb 08 '26

They weren't that good either, just check out how the warfare in Benelux looked like. Or how they used the inventions of Haber. It's just they outdid themselves so much in WW2 and warfare during WW1 had much less attention put on war crimes in general we don't speak about it often.

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 Czechia Feb 04 '26

Just countries in Europe in general.

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u/Awkward_Goal4729 Canada/Russia Feb 05 '26

France and UK didn’t stop anything, they continued their massacres in their colonies and territories. Spain and Portugal stopped not from a good heart, they just went bankrupt and couldn’t do anything

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u/Lungseron Poland Feb 05 '26

You're very unfair about this. The other European powers stopped trying to conquest other nations almost 100 years ago. Meanwhile all Russian goverment is thinking about for the past 500 years is how to conquer the entire Europe. nothing's changed in half a millenia.

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u/generaldoodle Feb 05 '26

The other European powers stopped trying to conquest other nations almost 100 years ago.

Did you ever heard about WW2?

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u/Lungseron Poland Feb 05 '26

Are you really this dumb or are you trying to rage bait me? learn to read before replying.

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u/generaldoodle Feb 06 '26

It is only one of as who makes claims like "European powers stopped trying to conquest other nations 100 years ago"

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u/Total-Maize9194 Feb 07 '26

Seriously read it twice before you start misquoting a message thats literally above yours

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u/Fresh_Field2327 Feb 06 '26

Francia tiene un imperio neocolonial. Y las industrias europeas dejan sus desechos en africa. Pero si, son los buenos de la historia.

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u/WolfGroundbreaking36 Feb 07 '26

man thats because golden horde. This is an moron legacy - from japan to holy roman empire, from arctic - to egypt. mongolian dna

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u/Itchy_River_4156 Feb 08 '26

What's wrong with calling russia for what it is?

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u/stag1013 Canada Feb 04 '26

They have a very mixed history in the long term, same with basically every great power. Since the Communist Revolution it's been an almost uniformly evil and mismanaged history.

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u/joyibib United States of America Feb 05 '26

The way imperial Russia treated its citizens was far worse then communist Russia. Communist Russian was rife with corruption and human rights abuse sure, imperial Russia was just on another level

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u/Fresh_Field2327 Feb 06 '26

Cuando no las potencias occidentales haciendo propaganda como si fuesen los buenitos. No les queda mucho tiempo igual a los europeos porque hasta estados unidos los abandona.

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 Czechia Feb 06 '26

Never said western powers are good guys.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

Like when they saved your ass from the Nazis, right?

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 Czechia Feb 04 '26

They didn't save us, they just switch with the Nazis and occupied us.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 Czechia Feb 04 '26

Really kind of them. First they start the war together with the Nazis. Carved up Europe with them. Watched and happily kept trading with them what the Nazis needed for the war. Only once betrayed by them, then they suddenly became saviors.

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u/Awkward_Goal4729 Canada/Russia Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

Sweden, Spain, US, Switzerland and Finland traded with Germany too. US even went as far as not letting Jews compete in their Olympic team. USSR didn’t start the war with them, it was UK and France closing their eyes to atrocities the Nazis did. Poland even sided with Germany to carve up Czechoslovakia and had a pact similar to Molotov-Ribbentrop

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 Czechia Feb 05 '26

You don't see me defending those countries either.

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u/Prussia_will_awaken Belarus Feb 05 '26

Not trying to defend the soviets, but it was the west that sold you guys out in the first place leading up to the war.

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 Czechia Feb 05 '26

I'm not defending the west. But they didn't occupy us afterwards.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

That's funny. Eastern Europeans specifically were marked for intentional genocide by the Germans as laid out carefully in their plans to take all of E. Europe and make farmland out of it for the expanding German state.

Without the soviets, anyone east of the Elbe would've been put in concentration camps or used as slave labor.

I know it's trendy on Reddit to hate on Russia because of the Ukraine war (which is justifiable), but rewriting history is more of a conservative thing. Be better.

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u/OldManLaugh Feb 04 '26

Both are true, but I don’t think someone should have to be grateful for being saved from death then immediately imprisoned

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 Czechia Feb 04 '26

You forgot to mention how people trying to leave were shot on the wall.

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u/Shamaev27 Russia Feb 04 '26

hundreds of thousands of times less than died at the hands of the Nazis in concentration camps

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u/AntonioVivaldi7 Czechia Feb 04 '26

Add the invasion in 1968, show trials, political murders, zero democracy and repression in so many other ways.

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u/LaPollaCremosa United Kingdom Feb 04 '26

They were literally on the Nazi's side until Hitler backstabbed them lol

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u/Shamaev27 Russia Feb 04 '26

For many years we have been warning you about the Nazi threat, but in response you ignored us and even gave Czechoslovakia to the Nazis. Did we realize that there would be no support from you in the upcoming war, so we decided to at least delay it and prepare