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Comment by cryptoegorophy | Hacker News Reader

As someone who lived in “unpredictable environment “ in the 90s in Russia the correct statement would be: So if you live in an unpredictable environment, it's better to just move to a predictable environment.

I saw a lot more people saving for the future rather than spending it all, which I surprisingly found the other way around in Canada, which is a predictable environment.

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> As someone who lived in “unpredictable environment “ in the 90s in Russia the correct statement would be: So if you live in an unpredictable environment, it's better to just move to a predictable environment.

I think _everyone_ would take that opportunity if it was presented. Or at least most people.

Kind of interesting, because what happened in Russia in the 90s specifically with privatisation of UDSSR assets through vouchers is almost comparable to the marshmallow test on a superficial level..

> The vouchers, each corresponding to a share in the national wealth, were distributed equally among the population, including minors. They could be exchanged for shares in the enterprises to be privatized. Because most people were not well-informed about the nature of the program or were very poor, they were quick to sell their vouchers for money, unprepared or unwilling to invest. [1]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatization_in_Russia

Your environment was predictable, in that savings up enough would likely give you the option to move out. There are places where saving up enough money to leave your unpredictable environment unpredictably ends with you drowned in the Mediterranean, or in limbo short of your intended destination, or shipped back to where you spent so long trying to leave, in addition to the "success" case.

I guess it depends on the meaning of predictable? We couldn’t predict 1 usd = 5rub would turn into 1usd =25rub almost overnight. My parents had friends in business killed (sadly not predictably) so it was unpredictable when it would be their turn.

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