Iran's leaders call it a "resistance economy": sanctions and war can't break it. That's the boast. This video is about the bill. The rial has crashed to around 2 million to the dollar and has lost roughly 60% of its value since March. Food prices are soaring. Bread lines are appearing. And the people saying it most clearly aren't protesters. They're the regime's own police, on camera, saying their salary doesn't last the month and they can't afford milk. That matters. Authoritarian regimes pay their enforcers well so they never have a reason to waver. When the men with the guns start complaining, the arrangement is breaking. Here's the trap: Iran's oil income reportedly rose during the war. The money is coming in, and ordinary Iranians are still getting poorer. The verdict is on the regime's economic model, not on Iranians and not on Islam. Iranians are the ones paying the bill.
Iran's leaders call it a "resistance economy": sanctions and war can't break it. That's the boast. This video is about the bill.
The rial has crashed to around 2 million to the dollar and has lost roughly 60% of its value since March. Food prices are soaring. Bread lines are appearing. And the people saying it most clearly aren't protesters. They're the regime's own police, on camera, saying their salary doesn't last the month and they can't afford milk.
That matters. Authoritarian regimes pay their enforcers well so they never have a reason to waver. When the men with the guns start complaining, the arrangement is breaking.
Here's the trap: Iran's oil income reportedly rose during the war. The money is coming in, and ordinary Iranians are still getting poorer.
The verdict is on the regime's economic model, not on Iranians and not on Islam. Iranians are the ones paying the bill.