In short, while the USSR being couped in 1991 led to a decade of SHARPLY falling quality of life, shortly after Putin took power these trends were stopped and in some cases reversed. They retain, in many ways, much better societal amenities (healthcare, education), and on average their common people live decently–still not on par with USSR standards but much better than the 90s and better than the USA, for sure, which grows truer every day as Russia either retains what it has or improves, while USA across the board continues to decay and decay. The difference will be even more stark in the next few decades, and if socialism returns to Russia (more likely to happen sooner than a socialist United States, that is certain) the difference will be colossal.
This is not specific to Russia and America, these trends are reflective when comparing any Western country to many non-Western ones; even the extremely impoverished countries have a much brighter long-term future than the imperial core. The rest of the world, no matter their current position, is improving, slowly and steadily, while the West, slowly but steadily, is dying.
how are material conditions in russia better than the us?
In short, while the USSR being couped in 1991 led to a decade of SHARPLY falling quality of life, shortly after Putin took power these trends were stopped and in some cases reversed. They retain, in many ways, much better societal amenities (healthcare, education), and on average their common people live decently–still not on par with USSR standards but much better than the 90s and better than the USA, for sure, which grows truer every day as Russia either retains what it has or improves, while USA across the board continues to decay and decay. The difference will be even more stark in the next few decades, and if socialism returns to Russia (more likely to happen sooner than a socialist United States, that is certain) the difference will be colossal.
This is not specific to Russia and America, these trends are reflective when comparing any Western country to many non-Western ones; even the extremely impoverished countries have a much brighter long-term future than the imperial core. The rest of the world, no matter their current position, is improving, slowly and steadily, while the West, slowly but steadily, is dying.