Novye Izvestia cited the results of a survey conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, which showed that 58% of the 1,500 respondents in Russia's regions and 600 Moscow residents said they did their best to earn as much money as possible. Young people love money the most - 78%. Thirty-six percent of respondents, mostly pensioners, said they did not want to be rich and were quite realistic about their opportunities.
"Interestingly, when asked about Russia as a whole, only 41% of the respondents said the increasing number of the rich would have a positive rather than negative effect on the country," said Yelena Vovk, an analyst with the Public Opinion Foundation.
A total of 31% of respondents said the opposite. They fear that the number of wealthy people will increase at the expense of poor people, which will eventually aggravate social disparity, inflame hatred between classes, breed crime and create a socially explosive situation to the point of revolution. Even 30% of those who do their best to increase their wealth share this view, Novye Izvestia wrote.
The reasoning behind it is clear: it is good to be rich if it is my family and me. But an opulent neighbor is likely to be someone of dubious reputation. He "certainly" got his money illegally, said Nikita Pokrovsky, the head of the general sociology department of the Moscow-based Higher School of Economics. "Hence the conclusion: I would rather not be so rich, if my neighbor is as well. It is easier to live this way," the expert said. Pokrovsky added that public opinion would only change when Russia has a middle class.
