Essay talk:A Pole's view on Poland

Criticism

This essay is rather misinformed.

I live in Poland. I am in my early 20s, confused, unemployed, still living with my mom. I have no far-reaching plans for my future. I don't know much about my country, but I'm pretty certain I am far more knowledgable than the average citizen.

You might want to read this article: Dunning-Kruger effect. (Not intending offense, it's a real effect.)

The tensions in my country are pretty high. I have no idea how it could have been in the communist days, but it's pretty common knowledge that capitalism is dead in Poland and it's slowly turning into a socialist state all over again. The minimal monthly salary is 1,700 PLN brutto - that's 1,200 PLN netto (about $350 USD). Most Poles earn that, some are lucky enough to earn 2,000 PLN - the average salary, according to some surveys, is 4,500 PLN - which COULD be true, but salaries of higher-ranking bureaucrats and other government-related employees high on the ladder count to that, too.

Don't you think that those very low wages, junk contracts, etc. have something to do with complete impunity with which the capitalists operate and weak governmental institutions? If they had to pay less taxes, do you think they would share more money with you or just keep it to themselves?

"Most Poles earn that" - no. There are roughly 16 000 000 workers in Poland and roughly 436 000 of them earn the minimum wage, so slightly less than 3% earn exactly the minimum wage. In 2010, 10% earned less than 105% of the minimum wage. [1] [2] [3]

Anyway, 21% of our income goes on taxes. And that's only the initial taxes.

No tax in Poland has a rate of 21%. Income tax is 18% and 36%, VAT is 5%, 8% and 23%.

There's also plenty that goes for electricity, water, heating, gas, and then we also have VAT. In rough amounts, this leaves someone working for the minimal wage with about 200-300 PLN to live with. Yes, live through one month for less than $100. Most of our taxes go to politicians' and high-tier government employees pockets.

High level CEOs out-earn the prime minister, the president, etc. by at least a factor of 10. [4]

Politicians only earn a lot if they have a business on the side.

Then the second concern is distributing it among the needy (ie. bums, losers, slackers, "permamently unemployed" and "residentially challenged" citizens). Helping the poor is cool - it's noble, it's morally good and admirable - but those who work honestly actually have less for living than those who don't. And politicians take the most. The average monthly income of Bronisław Komorowski, our soon-to-be-dismissed president, was 20,000 PLN. Roughly speaking, about 6,000 bucks. You might say "but hey, he's a president, he is responsible, he does more than you" etc. - bullshit. He never did anything. He was an obedient lap dog of Sejm who ALWAYS agreed with Sejm's and Senat's ideas and he always approved of them. The one which raised the retirement age from 55 and 60 years (for women and men respectively) to 67 years and the one which raised taxes - he signed 13 different statutes which raise a total of 21 different taxes.

You know what the problem in this country is? Total lack of capitalism. Total, man.

The biggest problems in Poland are too much unrestricted capitalism, weak public institutions, and a very low level of trust in society. Low wages are a product of these factors.

Bureaucrats from ZUS will always find a reason to forbid a Polish company from existence (CD Projekt and Polsat don't count, since they were founded when capitalism actually existed in Poland - thank God), while allowing foreign companies to flourish here.

Special pleading.

Other Polish companies that are doing well: Boryszew, LPP, Wielton, BRW, Drutex, Pesa, Newag, Solaris, Solbus, PZU, PKP Cargo, Lotos, Asseco, Comarch, Polkomtel (Plus), KGHM, PGE, Tauron, Enea, Grupa Azoty, Bank Handlowy, TVN, Gerda, Inglot, Eris, Maspex

We used to have Telekomunikacja Polska - or TP - here; now it is taken over by a German French[1] corporation, Orange. We used to have a Polish brand of soft drinks - Hoop - now it merged with the Slovakian company producing Kofola, since they thought it would be more profitable (can't blame them, I only hope they have good business relationship). Even companies which produce alcoholic beverages aren't owned by Polish people. The sub-companies can be Polish, but the major companies are sure as hell foreign.

I don't understand. First you complain about the lack of capitalism, then you complain about foreign takeovers which are an essential feature of capitalism. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Companies with foreign capital are actually in a minority. [5] They're just a lot more visible.

No business can flourish here, our money is being taken away by foreigners, we are in the European Union which ties our hands and allows us to do nothing at all (they also lend us money to do some cool initiatives, BUT WE'LL HAVE TO GIVE IT BACK SOMEDAY - but politicians don't give a shit, because we'll work in order to pay that debt, right?),

European funds are not loans. They are subsidies and don't have to be paid back. The only way in which EU funds increase debt is when the relevant entity doesn't have the money for its won share of the costs - e.g. the project is 60% financed by EU funds but the local government does not have the remaining 40% available in cash, so it has to take out a loan.

we are set between Germany and Russia (HOLY SHIT! XENOPHOBIA! xD) and we have higher debts than in the communist days when Edward Gierek was in charge. Our public debt has reached 100,000,000,000 PLN (A BILLION!) - that's about 33.3 million USD actually... over 400 billions, I either confused numbers or simply got stupid for a while or two [2]. From what I see, our situation is fucking hopeless.

Polish debt is moderate in comparison to other European countries. It is in fact below world average. [6] Poland's credit rating of A- is also decent. If the debt didn't increase during the financial crisis, there would be no growth.

A country that owes debt in its own fiat money is in a completely different position than a single household. Government debt is not a major problem, as long as interest on it isn't too high. The popular economic paper by Reinhart and Rogoff that showed high public debt slows down growth actually used faulty calculations. [7]

The debts from Gierek times were one of the primary causes of the fall of communism. PRL was essnetially bankrupt and was no longer able to even pay interest on the foreign debt. Compared to that time, public finances in Poland are in fairly good shape.

From my (very limited and clouded) perspective, we are slowly, but steadily going leftist.

There are no LGBT rights, abortion is banned, the clergy lords over politicians and is above the law, hate groups seem to grow in strength and are actively supported by the Church, there has been no major crackdown on illegal hiring practices or unpaid internships, and the tax exempt level of income is far below the minimum of existence. Very leftist indeed.

What we need is a reasonable amount of right-wing policy. A right-wing economy with absolutely neutral society. There's also a lot of social tension here - and people don't even know jack about economy, they confuse politics with sociology - like what to do about homosexuals or even more extreme queers (which I don't mind, I have plenty of homosexual friends and they're just fine) and some other weirdos who like to walk on parades dressed up in weird costumes (this I mind, some of my forementioned friends also speak against them), what to do with hooligans (whom I mind), but also what to do with people who speak for freedom (whom I don't mind and would actively support if I weren't such a fucking coward).

What about the other group that dresses up in weird costumes and parades on the streets: the Catholics during Corpus Christi? No issue with them? Also, maybe you should actually go to one of those "queer" parades, you may have some inaccurate ideas on what goes on at those events.

We have a politician who apparently meets the criteria to be the perfect healer of our country - Janusz Korwin-Mikke[3] - but man, he's fucking nuts. While I like his rightist approach to economy, I wouldn't personally put my trust into this guy - I agree that democracy (in case of Poland) doesn't work, since the majority of Poles are actually stupid (they demonstrate something similar to Stockholm syndrome, voting for the same shitty president again and again, because they are ignorant about politics or his role, let alone what he allows to slip by), he is a monarchist (doesn't mean he would set a monarchy here if he were elected a president - for that, he would require Sejm's approval), he has a very sharp and wild tongue, he uses eristics to prove his point and he is oftenly misunderstood - partially thanks to mass media who cut his statements to make them sound weirder than they actually are[4] and partially thanks to his own stupidity and inability to clearly express himself.

I am fairly sure he is, for the most part, understood accurately. There is no room to misinterpret his views on the disabled or pedophilia, and his views on Hitler are simply wrong.

His economic policy ignores everything that happened in economics since the 19th century.

There's also another politician who has very similar views to JKM - Paweł Kukiz - but he is a musician and he doesn't seem competent enough as a politician to me.

Kukiz is a misguided populist supported by extremely shady people. I am fairly sure that his charisma is being cynically exploited by the people that promote him. His main proposal is extremely counterproductive, and will prevent any party except the two largest ones from getting any seats in the parliament (including his own party). In the end, he may be more harmful to Poland than Kaczyński.

He would be a more reasonable choice than JKM, though. He even has high support - more than 20% of residents voted for him - which makes him an option to be reckoned with. He has reasonable right-wing views on economy and he doesn't seem to mind differences and variances in people. The perfect candidate - if only he proved himself to be actually competent as a politician.

To be more accurate, he has no views on the economy. The best demonstration of this is that he mentioned both the Adam Smith Center and union activists in the same sentence when asked who will be present on his list of candidates for the upcoming election, even though these people have completely opposite goals.

--Tweenk (talk) 02:00, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

Hey, thanks for responding to my essay and taking the time to respond to it. I removed it because it was literally so stupid I am ashamed of it. I decided to not remove your criticism though, because it's something you have properly researched, worked on and you put it in good will. Hopefully it's understandable. Loc (talk) 16:43, 15 July 2017 (UTC)