A Little Bit On An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

You know, famous Adam Smith's treatise which gives some (not all) reasonable insights into the nature of wealth accumulation. And since I mentioned today this "moron with Ph.D" such as Sarah. C. Paine who for some unknown reason teaches "strategy" in otherwise respectable US Naval War College, there are certain material signs of the wealth. We should start with recognizing the fact that REAL wealth's accumulation is susceptible to such events as continental warfare, which neither the UK nor, especially, the US know. As a result, not experiencing such pleasantries of continental warfare such as material devastation, mass killing off human capital, hunger and immense restoration efforts, it becomes clear why Great Britain, largely through exploiting her Empire, reached the material wealth in XIX century unheard of in history. It accumulated because it didn't fight continental wars--only expeditionary ones. Consider also Netherlands. 

The same process could be observed for the United States in the XX century, which allowed the US to accumulate an enormous wealth due a number of critical geographic and economic factors, and even the Civil War and the victory of the Union in it far from damaging largely agrarian South, in the long run substituted backward and highly unproductive slavery with much more advanced mode of production and agriculture, which saw the United States achieving an unprecedented standard of living in history until the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. Again, absence of continental warfare on a massive scale and all pleasantries associated with it have been largely absent in the history of the United States. Especially for her then emerging massive industrial areas which are located "above" (the nominal North) Mason-Dixon line. I omit here, of course, an immense "exorbitant privilege" the United States captured in the aftermath of the WW II, which saw the world devastated, while the US not only remained intact but profited greatly from this war. 

And we can see even today material manifestations of this accumulated wealth which are numerous--still the best and the largest highway system in the world, dying out but once great American cities with the remnants of great American architecture and numerous well maintained and either well-off or downright wealthy communities which are not gated. Many of those are still around, and Americans love their cars, some of them really good, actually, which long ago became symbols of American freedom. You can also go to any marina anywhere in the US and you will find numerous boat types, from yachts to motorboats, some of them expensive to buy and maintain. Those signs are still there. In Europe they are already diminishing because European wealth for the last 50+ years was based on naive Russians providing affordable energy to Europe, and Europe is becoming and will become poor. The US is undergoing similar process, but superpowers move differently than geopolitical hoi polloi, but the US has unsolvable problem of the immense national debt on her hands.  

Compare now this with historic Russia, which with the exception of her dazzling Tsar Court and parasitic class of landowners, was always poor. And then there have been non-stop devastating wars and Russian Empire/USSR with much of freeloading from the ethnic fringes which at some point of time, especially Middle Asia, required from Russia non-stop laboring in holding them on sustainable economic level. Russian history of the XIX-XX century is one of the non-stop fights with invasions, devastation, restoration and same all over again--no time to have as Stolypin wanted: Give Russia 20 years of internal and external peace and quiet and it will change beyond recognition (c). Today Russia is unrecognizable from even 15 years ago. Never in her history did Russian people live that well as they do today (not without problems, of course). And the signs of accumulating wealth ranging from massive ultra-modern housing, to ever expanding modern highways, to a huge number of automobiles everywhere, to renewed, sometimes dazzling cities are already in place. And here is a little bit on where the US leads Russia (no, not in the production of the surfing boards) in those manifest signs of the wealth accumulation--it is a private aviation. 

The US has it and it is largest, by far, in the world. Here is Piper (one of the models), but the US skies are filled with Cessnas, Moonies, what have you. 

And this is the field in which Russia will never close the gap due to smaller population and lack of own culture of private ownership of such aviation. Make no mistake, there are Russians who own private planes--made mostly in Europe and the US, but it takes a lot of time and disposable wealth to start even contemplating such purchases and ownership. More expansion of airstrips is also required, as well as own production. Russia does have own production of private (small) aviation. Russians do manufacture own private planes, such as amphibious L-72. 

Since 2018 these flying boats and their derivatives went into small serial production and are being produced in dozens every year. Very slow rate production of SK-12 (again flying boat, natural for Russia) also is ongoing. Yes, private aviation is still present in Russia, nowhere near in numbers comparable to the US, but those who own those planes often prefer to buy established Western brands and that is not going to change any time soon, unlike it is the case with large commercial aviation. You can read comparative study about this gap by following this link. Granted, it is from 2022. But still, numbers are not encouraging. Russians simply prefer traditionally: commercial planes, trains and automobiles. Considering Russia's much better than in the US public transportation system, including inter-city, especially trains, it is as much the issue of flying culture as it is of pure economics, but here, as well as in the surfing boards, the US lead is untouchable, and this manifestation of the wealth accumulation will remain on the US side. It is just the fact, and it will begin to change somewhat the more Russians sprawl to the suburbia and modern private housing (a well pronounced trend), but it will not change the relation and ratio much. 

P.S. You can read about private and small aviation in Russia (in Russian) by following this link.