Polish aristocrats - would be better off if we had Polish magnate families?

You will never recover because zilch will never become million.

I am not expecting you to turn into a million; you are not one of us.

Well, aristocracy belongs to the past:)

Nope :)

We got plenty of them out here in Europe. The only difference is that the Polish aristocracy lost everything while the rest still got their estates and names.

That goes for all of them behind the Iron Curtain. And for example Austria banned all aristocratic titles in 1918.

In Austria they lost their title but kept their land.

They certainly lost their titles with no jurisdiction now willing to issue or recognise them.

of course Poland would be better off! A lot of people on this thread are arguing about schlata going back hundreds of years... why this is relevant to the OP's question, I am not sure. The upper classes that were murdered during and after WWII would have CERTAINLY benefitted Poland! These were the inteligentsia - doctors, lawyers, scholars, professors, economists, thinkers, artists, businessmen, generals, etc - basically THE people who create the sophisticate culture of a country!! How can any of you say Poland would not be better off with them? A lot of these people owned property and private businesses - businesses that would stimulate and grow Poland's economy instead of massacring it during communism. The old moneyed people tend to be more patriotic that the nouveau riche - who often give their loyalty to money rather than country and tradition. Now, not all nouveau riche are tacky and uncultured - and I am certainly not saying that entrepreneurship is bad! Quite the contrary - I feel the one thing that may save Poland is private ownership and private business. It's just those politicians who sell out every Polish endeavor they can for their own profit.

Agreed, texas.

I'm too lowborn to be part of the elite under monarchy and I'm not grasping or sociopathic enough to be part of the elite under a Republic or Democracy.

Ultimately, somebody is going to be in charge of me. I'd prefer that it not be a grasping sociopathic politician/lawyer. A monarch who in effect owns the country would have an entirely different set of incentives than a grasping politician/lawyer. There is far more of an incentive to maintain your own property than there is to maintain the common land.

But if I am going to be ruled by a grasping sociopathic politician/lawyer then I'd like to throw up as many barriers in his path as possible.