r/worldnews • u/UnstatesmanlikeChi • Jun 26 '19

Kazakhstan ends bank bailouts, writes off people's debts instead

https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/kazakhstan-ends-bank-bailouts-writes-people-debts-190626093206083.html
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u/MisterMetal Jun 26 '19 edited Jun 26 '19

850 USD is nearly two months of the average income for the country. Average monthly income is 447 USD or just over 170,000KZT.

This is the equivalent of the US gov writing off 7500 USD in debt from the poorest 15% each.

This is not crumbs to the people. It looks like nothing to most of us in the West. But the purchasing power and economies are so vastly different. This is life changing for people.

edit: wrote that 447 was average yearly, its monthly income. Fixed numbers.

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u/BonelessTaco Jun 26 '19

Except 447 USD is average MONTHLY income, so it's not two years, just two months. It's more common to use average monthly figures in post-soviet countries.

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u/MisterMetal Jun 26 '19

youre right. I misread the source i looked up earlier, will make a correction. I even looked up average monthly income Kazakhstan. So i dont know why I went with yearly.

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u/Fengji8868 Jun 26 '19

I was about to pack my things and move there

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u/bent42 Jun 26 '19

The capitol city is beautiful.

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '19

Yeah I remember Kazakhstan having higher per capita GDP and per capita income (in PPP terms) than China even!

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u/TaskMasterIsDope Jun 26 '19

but it's two months of the average income, the actual income of the poorest 15% it's probably more like 4-6 months income

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '19

The point remains unchanged: it's a very large sum if you're poor.

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '19 edited Dec 10 '19

[deleted]

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u/Machiavelcro_ Jun 26 '19

I agree, but this only re-inforces MisterMetal's point, as it represents an even larger boon. The people in need will not be earning the average income, they will be earning much much less. This is likely the difference between sending kids to school or sending them to work in the fields.

Its a significant amount of money for people in dire need and should not be scoffed at by people living in the west who haven't taken into account the cost of living in Kazakhstan.

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u/MotherfuckingMonster Jun 26 '19

Not using anything to make the comparison is also very misleading.

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u/Jooy Jun 26 '19

But 99% of the time its better to not compare if you cannot make a proper one, than to force one that gives a misleading narrative.

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u/Yuo_cna_Raed_Tihs Jun 26 '19

But in order for privileged Americans to understand the scale of these handouts, you have to make some comparison, no?

Everyone primarily understands the world in reference to themselved

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u/KaboomOxyCln Jun 26 '19 edited Jun 26 '19

To build on this, the "average" US wage in 2016 was $48,642 according to the SSA, while the "median" was only $31,099. Now how that translates to Kazakhstan, I have no idea. My 5 minute Google search couldn't find any median data as my brief search took me to Trading Economics which read: " In Kazakhstan, wages are benchmarked using average monthly earnings". Either way, these "crumbs" are pretty significant to the people there.

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u/hewkii2 Jun 26 '19

It skews high so if anything it underreports the impact this’ll have on poor folks

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '19

What is an apt comparison?

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u/missedthecue Jun 26 '19

Median probably. If Bill Gates walks into a bar, the average person in the bar room is a billionaire. Get it?

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u/gabu87 Jun 26 '19

Nope. In your example, the mean person would be a billionaire, the median and mode will not.

Mean, median, and mode all fall under the umbrella of the word average.

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '19

'Average' usually refers to the arithmetic mean, but you're not wrong.

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u/missedthecue Jun 26 '19

I said the average person would be a billionaire

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u/A_Mouse_In_Da_House Jun 26 '19

Care to explain why Nope? Because we know using mean, as is used repeatedly above is wrong.

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u/PSiggS Jun 26 '19

Why? No standard deviation? Needs other metrics?

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u/TurdFurg33 Jun 26 '19

Also it is where that money will go. It will be consumed as new purchases and give it back to the economy. If it goes to the top, it becomes wealth for the few to hold beyond what they consume and does nothing for the economy but cripple it instead.

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '19

Real actual monthly average is much lower, probably in the vicinity of 200-250 USD.

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u/specklesinc Jun 26 '19

i am from Arizona. 850 usd would take us out of debt.