Life / Why foreigners in Poland do not respect Poland's culture and traditions? [68]


Perhaps you should supply some proof for your claim. For what it's worth, I suspect those mentioned indulge with Polish culture and traditions far more than a "patriot" who has spent the last two decades across the pond.


Remind us why you chose to abandon Poland as soon as you could?

Life / Why foreigners in Poland do not respect Poland's culture and traditions? [68]


They aren't legitimate, because you don't live and haven't been in Poland for years.

Perhaps you'd like to supply some evidence for your claim?

Travel / Cost of taxi from Modlin airport to Warsaw old town? [21]

Have you tried airbnb? You can talk to the owners directly there - you might find someone flexible enough to leave the key somewhere for you.

Real Estate / Prices of agricultural land in Poland [39]

I don't know the Krakow property market, but it strikes me that such a thing would be scarce and very expensive?

Travel / Cost of taxi from Modlin airport to Warsaw old town? [21]

If it's anything like airport buses elsewhere, it'll wait for the last flight. Or at least, it should...

Law / Unemployment aid in Poland for an EU citizen [14]

I can be a man and admit that I was totally and utterly wrong. Met the OP last night (a great guy!) and he's found decent work here. So it is perfectly possible, should you be properly qualified :)

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


Totally understandable - I know a few women who own small companies, and all of them are adamant on one thing - women have ruined it for themselves. I can't say I blame employers for this at all.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


Good point, but then again, I guess someone has to pay for all those farmers on uneconomic farms getting their highly-subsidised KRUS.


No, it's not bad at all if the employer is acting in good faith - but I wonder how many genuinely do?


To be honest, I think they could start by abolishing much of the ridiculous laws that protect people on umowa o prace - I'm not surprised that many employers want people as self employed simply to avoid the minefield that is giving someone a proper contract here.

Then again, you may well be right - we all know that Poles like to spend to show off, so certainly less tax paid would do a lot to get people spending.

Study / Schools to learn Polish language in Poznań? [11]

Dorota at Teach Me Polish comes very highly recommended - teach me Polish.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


Yes way. Employers have to pay an extra 18.19% on top of the gross salary to ZUS - so let's take your average unscrupulous language school owner. He knows that he can offer 50zl gross - so he convinces the worker to go self employed and 50zl gross is what he pays. He doesn't have the obligation to pay ZUS 18.19% on top of that, so he's sitting comfortably - the employee gets screwed, not the employer. As the person is self employed, he's supposed to shoulder the burden of the employer payments himself - so our language school owner is now 18% richer for doing nothing.

Those school owners who demand that workers go self employed are nothing but crooks.


Exactly. Add to the fact that it's a cash business, and you soon see why dishonest types like it so much.


Oh please ;) Still, on the good side, I doubt they'd survive a serious examination by the tax office were they to be so corrupt as to have all their teachers on a self employed basis, especially if those teachers are teaching formal classes.

Next person to make personal comment instead of adressing the topic will be suspended. If you want to argue bin welcomes you.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


Yes, it is. It's a disgusting practice - workers are ordered how to do their work and when, and they are no doubt treated entirely like normal employees. Meanwhile, the business owner pockets the 20% social insurance contributions that he was obliged to pay on top of the gross salary. It's even more disgusting when the business owners in question attempt to justify their practices by claiming that it's the only way to hire people.

It's one thing to do it in the creative industries, where workers may have external projects that they can also invoice for - but language teaching? really?


Entirely legal provided you know how to play the game of sick notes and maternity leave. With maternity leave increasing to a year, it's certain that women of child bearing age will be discriminated against even further in years to come. Then you get the language school owner popping up with his great deal where he pays you a gross amount provided you go self employed, and the women have no choice because of the actions of their peers.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


Anyone with a grasp of economics can see that the Polish countryside is hampered by the vast amount of small private farmers that simply aren't using the land to any sort of potential. As I keep saying, Poland could become a food superpower in Europe if she was to abolish KRUS - the short term pain would be worth the gain, particularly as Poland wouldn't have to administer CAP funds to a ridiculous amount of small "farms".

Going back on topic, one has to question the mysterious dramatic rise in self employment in Poland. Language schools are already notorious for being run by people who deliberately flout the law by requiring teachers to be self employed - could it be that this trend is spreading? It's certainly one of the more despicable practices, particularly as the money saved on ZUS goes straight to the language school owners pocket.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


The point is that the West is not better. A young German in Berlin will be very lucky to get anything but a minijob, whereas in Poland, the young Pole can often get reasonable employment that pays more than in Berlin, but with significantly lower expenses.


Plenty of people have observed and commented on how Germany's economic strength actually comes from quite severe institutionally-approved exploitation of workers.


Or they could simply learn about the situation for themselves and speak to some Germans about the situation with these minijobs.

The fact remains : one in five working Germans are employed in a job that pays them no more than 450 euro per month.

Thankfully in Poland, we have the utter abuse of self employment by unscrupulous businessmen who force their workers into being self employed so that they don't have to pay social insurance contributions. One has to wonder when the tax office will start putting a stop to this particularly vile practice.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]

One in five Germans works in a job where you aren't entitled to full social welfare payments, where pension contributions are lower and where you can only earn a figure slightly higher than the Polish minimum wage. The country has no minimum wage, and young people are routinely exploited with "minijob" contracts.

Doesn't sound like utopia to me. Sounds rather like hell, especially with the rising rents in Berlin and the widespread usage of Minijobs there.


I've always thought that these small farms are an utter disaster. Poland is a big food exporter as it is - but imagine Poland's potential were the farming industry to be run like the French system?

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


The fact remains that there are plenty of Germans working for less than 500 Euro a month. Berlin in particular is a hotbed of such "minijobs".

Now, bearing in mind that the basic costs of living are higher there (food, public transport, etc) - who is really poorer, the 500 Euro salesman in Poland or the 450 Euro minijob worker in Germany?

And to make matters worse, the 500 Euro worker in Poland has (possibly, if their employer hasn't forced them to be self employed like some unscrupulous bastards do) some pension payments made and full social protection. Minijob workers? Forget about it.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]

Actually, it's not quite as astonishing as it seems - the Karta Polaka basically provides a way for people of Polish descent to obtain most of the benefits of Polish citizenship without becoming EU citizens. It's actually a better deal for the EU - Poland allows her people to access the fatherland, but at the same time, it stops them from accessing the rest of the EU.

I think the Karta Polaka also exists to help people who might be punished for having a second citizenship, especially in places like Belarus.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


I think many of those Ukrainians and Belarusians may have the Karta Polaka that allows them free access to the Polish labour market. I know a few Ukrainians from L'viv that have it.


Nope, doesn't pay well enough and is hard work.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


The smart play the system and collect from both countries, but the intelligent see the opportunity. Only the stupid would prefer to stay unemployed.


They won't work for 500 euro a month?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but do you know what a minijob is?

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324682204578512782697519080.html


Germany, unbelievably, also doesn't have a minimum wage.

News / Poland's universities go up in world rankings [23]

Those rankings are strange - no Adam Mickiewicz, despite being ranked 3rd in Poland?

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


There's nothing to be said for it, because I don't live anywhere near Pakistan and nor do I live in an unemployment blackspot close to an international border. If I lived in Szczecin, I'd learn German because it would be senseless not to.


Working for less money than in your own country is a far better option than being unemployed in my opinion. There are a lack of Polish speaking Germans as it is.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


Yep, same story in Gorlitz. I saw a beautiful old kamenica on the border (on the German side) that had nothing but Polish names on the door - flats are available for a ridiculously cheap price there and unlike Germans, Poles can find work in Poland. There's a lot to be said for Germans living in employment blackspots that can't be bothered to learn the Czech/Polish languages in order to find employment.

Having said that, I met one chap in Slubice who learnt Polish and opened a cafe in Poland because it made sense economically. He could benefit from some very nice social provisions in Germany and yet legally run a business in Poland - and the combined income gave him a very comfortable lifestyle.


That isn't quite accurate. If it wasn't for the ex-DDR in the border areas being absolutely dead and with a shocking economy, Germans would be living there and pushing the prices of flats beyond the reach of Poles. I know quite a few Poles living in Frankfurt (Oder) who take advantage of some very comfortable terms and conditions there in relation to subsidised rents, heating and utilities.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


Which is very good - it discourages breeding for the sake of breeding.


The thing is that Poland can't be compared to "Western norms" because Poland didn't start in the same position. For me, the most sensible comparison is to the other Visegrad countries. Slovakia is doing somewhat well because of how Bratislava has boomed, the Czechs 20 years on are still stagnating and the Hungarians have recently fallen behind Poland.

For what it's worth, in terms of ordinary life, I'd much rather live in Poland than some parts of the ex-DDR.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


They would be very well off were they to earn a Norwegian salary in Poland. But they don't, they have to pay Norwegian prices (and taxation). At the end of the day, a family struggling to afford childcare isn't well off regardless if they're in Norway or Poland.


And they're doing a bloody good job of catching up. The vast amount of Germans employed on a "minijob" basis is scandalous.


Not much of a surprise, given the welfare state and mass nationalisation of post-WW2.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


Depends if you think that pure numbers matter when calculating quality of life and so on. I was reading only a few hours ago about how single-wage families in Norway struggle to pay for the costs of living.


Comparing Poland (economically ruined in 1990) to Germany, Denmark and Spain doesn't seem like a fair comparison anyway. Wages in Poland are significantly higher than in Ukraine or Belarus, does it really mean anything?

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


Which doesn't tell us very much, given the mess of the Spanish property market and the unemployment situation, the crippling taxation in Denmark (have you seen the taxes on new cars?) and the fact that the Germans can't even build an airport.

Law / Being forced to Maintenance Payments to alcoholic father in Poland? [14]


If the court rules so, yes. He maintained you (in theory) when you were a child, so it's now your turn to maintain him.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]


We will see - if they abolish KRUS, then things will change dramatically overnight as it simply becomes unviable for small uneconomic farms to exist.

Law / Opening a bank account and buying a car in Poland (account in Euros, car tax, insurance) [22]

It's something buried in the regulations surrounding the technical checks, as far as I remember.

If you can convince a bent garage to pass it, then you can register it.

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]

Crow, do you have any figures for the amount of exports to Serbia from Poland and imports from Serbia?

News / Premier says no recession for Poland [148]

No-one ever said that poor people were bad people, only that if they complain about the situation, then they should start by looking at themselves.


I just saw this, sorry :)

In my very humble opinion, I have a lot of respect for Polish teachers that can teach a foreign language properly. I think it's absolutely criminal that schools pay them less, not least because the vast majority of "native speakers" are utter jokers.