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Comment by droithomme | Hacker News Reader

Turkmenistan since independence has been a reclusive benevolent welfare state. They have universal basic income there, one of a small number of countries and states.

They are compared to North Korea but it's not a fair comparison since they threaten no one and their people are not oppressed. They are restricted, and strongly encouraged to pursue traditional tribal activities and eschew the western world. But not oppressed, despite outside claims.

The capital city's architecture is among the most bizarre and fantastic in the world and worth a visit if you can get in, which is very hard. You have to be invited to visit. Some tourism agencies can arrange this but it's not for the average traveler.

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Its far from a pleasant place. My wife and I had an exchange student from there and while she was a firm believer in the system (you don't get to leave the country without some serious trust from the authorities) but even she could tell you that buying things from the government shops was fraught with fraud, poor quality goods, and lines. Everyone shops at the non-government bazaars and you can buy smuggled goods there for inflated prices--but the goods are of a much higher quality than what you find in the government stores. You can also buy US dollars in the bazaar, which is what everyone does because the local currency (the manat) is essentially worthless and the value fluctuates wildly.

A 'fun' story about our exchange student and goods--she would save her pocket money (allowance, some small money she would make by doing errands for people) all month so she could buy a kg of Turkish salt. See the Turkmen salt you could buy in the store is made from the Caspian sea (distilling salt from the water) and their filtration is crap. So the salt you buy is brownish in the bag, and is filled with small rocks and other clumps of junk. So when you buy a bag of Turkmen salt, you have to carefully clean it before use. Otherwise you bite into your rice pilaf and break a tooth on a stone--which is what happened to her mom. Thats what finally pushed her to take the small amount of money she had and spend it on buying salt for her little family.

All the things you mentioned, any exchange student from India will also tell you same and India is a democracy.

You can't hold USD in your account, government ration shops have corruption issue. Quality is also questionable.

It just tells you one thing that the US seems far better from their perspective.

Do you have a source on basic income? The only result claiming such on Google's first page for ["turkmenistan" "basic income"] is your comment, and DDG has nothing. The following comprehensive-seeming Wikipedia article also has no mention: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income_around_the_world

> their people are not oppressed. They are restricted, and strongly encouraged to pursue traditional tribal activities

Sounds like oppression to me.

I don't think you need to be invited to visit - I know someone who went there last year. Unless "invitation" is code for tourist visa or something? Wikipedia only talks about visas, and doesn't mention invitations.

Government removed all "free amenities" such as electricity, gas, etc. It is paid.

Fuel was cheap before, you could buy 40 liters for 1 dollars, but know only 3 liters. For a common turkmen folks, it is very expensive.

There is no universal basic income in Turkmenistan.

You are right on oppression. Not threatened but indirectly (KGB) oppressed. In a level that people always "censor themselves" before speak.

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