Truck and Barter

Token Hoarding in St. Petersburg, Russia

Just received word from our correspondent in St. Petersburg, Russia (my mother-in-law), that on January 1st the local authorities will raise subway fares.

What's interesting about this situation is that the authorities do NOT change the tokens when raising fares; of course, that would cost too much money.

But, this is Russia, so those costs don't disappear; they're passed onto the Russian people. As expected, those who live in Piter have been fighting back--not by mass protest--but by buying up tokens at a rate so furious rate that there's now a "shortage".

This hoarding is so effective and widespread that there's now a 20-30 minute wait in line just to purchase a token.

Sorry, I couldn't find a link.

Posted at December 9, 2004 09:52 AM

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style):

Note: You may have to reload to see your comment.

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://truckandbarter.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/324