Penza, 11 November 2015. PenzaNews. The modern capitalism economy can exist only together with solvent consumers, said Georgy Kamnev, first secretary of the CPRF regional committee branch, deputy of the Penza region Legislative Assembly, during a meeting with citizens and members of local intelligentsia.

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“The real issue is a total absence of means to influence the authorities, the state decision-making process. The reason is oligopoly, the rule of oligarchs that led to a never-seen-before property gap where the richest draw the last drops of juice from the rest of the total majority in the population. An extremely large part of national treasures flows to the West, leaving no chance of survival for the future generations. The levels of bribery are colossal, and officials do not shun showing their wealth – grand palaces, luxurious cars, properties abroad,” said the leader of Penza Communists.

The social elevation measures fail to work as the authorities together with the oligarchs are seeking to eliminate all means of mounting sufficient competition in politics, business and social sphere.

“The best job goes not to the most intelligent or the most experience, but a relative of a bighead in state service or an oligarch. And there are no ways to influence it so far. This makes the most promising young people seek a better life in the West. For example, 265,000 Russians have applied for US residential permit in the first 9 months of this year alone. Is this something normal? As you can see, these are far from the worst people, likely the other way around,” Georgy Kamnev told the audience.

He also drew attention to the example of Finland, a country with no significant natural resources, apart from forests, that nevertheless announced its decision to provide “universal basic income” to every citizen as of January 1, 2016.

“That means all citizens of Finland, regardless of gender, age, social standing and place of residence, will receive 800 euro every month, which is 56,000 rubles at the current exchange rate. A family with two kids, for example, will have a ‘universal basic income’ of 3,200 euros, or about 225,000 rubles at the current exchange rate. How is that possible? Let’s look at the property stratification situation. The richest 10% of the Finns earn an average of 4,900 euros, the poorest 10% – 2,100 euros. The difference is by about two times. So the national money are relatively evenly and justly spread between all citizens. Overall worldwide, billioners hold 1-2% of national fund amounts. According to Valery Goreglyad, head of the Russian Chamber of Accounting, 0.2% of families in our country control 70% of the national funds. It is this microscopic part of our society that nearly totally consumes our country’s earnings, leaving scraps for the rest,” Georgy Kamnev said.

He also added that the richest 10% of the Russians earn 25 as much as the poorest 10%.

“Social researchers say revolts are inevitable if the difference exceeds 10 times. Just to remind you, it was only 4 times as much in the Soviet Union. A surprising phenomenon for the modern Russia, but 50% of the households in poverty have people working. And the numbers of people working themselves into poverty is rapidly increasing, thanks to decreasing real income due to the downfall of ruble and inflation that ensued. At the same time, the numbers of billionaires increased, up to 110 persons,” stressed the leader of Penza Communists.

“The modern capitalism economy can exist only together with solvent consumers. Since nearly all income is amassed by 0.2% of the population, the share of solvent consumers is very low. The capitalist economy cannot function normally in such conditions. However, all CPRF initiatives to nationalize natural resources and vital fields of economy that make the foundation of our national wealth, on introducing a progressive tax scale, on ratifying the Article 20 of the UN convention on fighting corruption – when officials must provide arguments for making expensive purchases – are rejected by the current authorities. And the main issue right now is the lack of means to influence the authority, the decision-making process. And the events of 2011-2012, when crowds of people poured out on the streets, did not resolve the main issues in the society, the causes are still relevant. Protest tensions will keep rising,” Georgy Kamnev added.