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Poland is now among the 20 largest economies

apnews.com

841–850 of 944 posts

Re: Poland is now among the 20 largest economies

#841

The story is longer: Poland was the first country to make a remarkable peaceful transition from a bankrupt, failed Soviet satellite state. The shock therapy, plus NATO and EU aspirations, paved the way. It is a story of a country that made a lot of the right decisions along the way. Managed to keep consistent high growth, not a pony trick or boom/bust mode. Poland should be a role model for many other countries. Reco…

It was mainly thanks to two men who decided to give up their future: the prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and the minister of finances Leszek Balcerowicz.

Today's politicians look like angry toddlers in a sandbox in comparison.

There ware other great people of course, but these two paid the price.

Re: Poland is now among the 20 largest economies

#842
I am French but travelled extensively to Poalnd and lived there for some time. This is a truly wonderful country.

The one thing that is a insurmontable barrier to go and live there (I considered that) is the healthcare sstem. It is completely broken.

You have free healthcare where people behave like beggars in front of the demi-god MD. They do not pay him for hs work, officially, but there is money slipped under he table to make things work. It is unbereable.

Then you have provate health care whichis not not bad, until you have a serious problem and you are back to the public system.

Finally the medicines/drugs are not refunded. You have to pay for them. This is wild for someone coming from France.

I think that if Poland upgraded that part of its politics it would be a country bringing in lots and lots of people useful for the country.

Re: Poland is now among the 20 largest economies

#844

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

De-russification didn't really start until the Orange Revolution, though. It's a long and painful process for Ukraine as reducing corruption requires shedding all the Russian influence. Before that, a lot of the problems genuinely are because of Russia. All states escaping the Russian curse improve speedily once they join the EU, and I expect the same to happen in Ukraine.

>De-russification

Oh, please, please elaborate on that. How do you link corruption to ethnicity and language?

Re: Poland is now among the 20 largest economies

#845
post #50

french and german working class tax. and obviously great leadership to use EU and that money well to win. unlike france for instance that got outplayed by germany that itself got outplayed by their dear ally the USA and are now going into energy obsolescence.

German working class is actually benefiting from this as Poland it one of their biggest importers now. And they are still benefiting from slave labor, stolen precious metals, and art they got during the WW2. Not to mention the Marshall Plan. They really can't be complaining.

No working class of a developped country will benefit from anything of value by using lower cost markets to import stuff and workers. CEOs and shareholder will in the shortterm and that is all they want so they can get rewarded next earning quarter. On the long term they will loose but they will already have moved to another company. Europe is a scam to ruin countries and a dictatorship that now wants to remove vpns and freedom of speech from its citizen

Re: Poland is now among the 20 largest economies

#846
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the 1980s, EU money was flowing to Spain, Portugal and Greece. And people complained about that too. But the result is inarguably positive. Those countries had only recently become democracies after decades of military dictatorships or otherwise unstable third-world style governments. Today they're the most dynamic economies in the EU in many respects, and their democracies are well established and functioning. Th…

Spain is often given as an example of a failed economy ruined by socialists. GDP per capita is basically flat over the last 2 decades, $30K. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/esp/spa... vs Poland that tripled or let's say Israel that had the same GDP as Spain and now has double.

What happened in Spain is that they joined the Euro currency, and this caused a massive boom from 2001-2007 where GDP more than doubled in only 6 years. This was mostly fueled by capital transfers from other Eurozone countries, seeking higher returns than in their home country.

Of course this rate of growth proved unsustainable: in 2008 the (Spanish) real estate bubble burst and this caused bank bail outs, massive unemployment (rates around 25%), and put an end to GDP growth for many years, exacerbated by the fact that Spain did no longer have its own currency to devalue in order to regain international competitiveness.

At the time the bubble burst, government debt in Spain was at a bit more than 40% GDP, with a budget surplus, far lower than for example the "responsible" Germany at more than 60%.

Now what does any of that have to do with "socialists"? If anything, it's a cautionary tale about badly designed currency zones and financial markets misallocating capital.

Re: Poland is now among the 20 largest economies

#847

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That basically describes the US as well.

Eh rural areas are quite beautiful in the US depending on the aesthetic you like.

West Virginia is one of the most beautiful places in the US. I fondly remember hikes along the Seneca River, rock climbing, and rhododendron forests.

But it is an economically devastated state. Many families there, are in terrible shape.

I've heard similar about the tourist islands in the Caribbean. Paradise, with no money.

Re: Poland is now among the 20 largest economies

#848
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there was a correlation you would see the same trend in Slovakia, Hungary and such

Well, you do see the same trend in gdp per capita in Slovakia. The problem is that Poland has 30m more people. https://georank.org/assets/img/charts/economy/poland/slovaki...

Per capita Slovakia gets more EU funding than Poland yet the results are poor.

Re: Poland is now among the 20 largest economies

#850
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article on AP literally has a graph showing outsized growth of Poland compared to these countries (measured in GDP per capita).

that is a graph of growth, but they started from different baselines, e.g. Hungary was famously known as "the happiest barrack in the communist camp". Slovakia and Hungary have trailed % growth compared to Poland, but they are far richer countries now that they were 20 years ago, and the GDP per capita for Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia is quite close to each other[0]. I'm not trying to say Poland didn't do well, it d…

If you account for PPP comparing 2006 and 2026 and also take into account cost of living, Slovakia is not that much richer.

Ukraine saw similar rise of PPP per capita as Slovakia and Slovakia wasn't even invaded in 2014.

Switzerland's GDP per capita PPP growth is same as Slovakia and Switzerland is not in EU.

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