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Posts by Grzegorz_  

Joined: 16 Nov 2006 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - A		 Last Post: 28 Jul 2016
Threads: Total: 51 / In This Archive: 14
Posts: Total: 6138 / In This Archive: 1996 		From: Plantation (abandoned Poland so long ago)
Speaks Polish?: some
Interests: leading

Displayed posts: 2010 / page 45 of 67
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Grzegorz_   
23 Jun 2011
UK, Ireland / Poles top the UK's EU crime figures [78]

it's not exactly a big secret that Poland exported a lot of the lowlife trash West.

Also imported quite a few...
Grzegorz_   
12 Jun 2011
News / Jerusalem Post: Poland's good intentions [30]

They will never let it go. I won't be surprised If sooner or later our OFE money and foreign exchange reserves will be looted to "pay it back".
Grzegorz_   
11 Jun 2011
Travel / Krakow to Hradec Kralove? [5]

I know there's a direct train connection between Kraków and Prague, not exactly through Hradec Kralove but through that region, so If you switch to some local train in the right place, It should be quite close from there but I'm not sure how does it look like (price/time) in comparision with the option of traveling to Wrocław first. You rather won't find any direct connection from Kraków.
Grzegorz_   
10 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

Please stop with the lies Mark. There is no way that the guy can be earning 7zl per hour: that would be about 75% of the legal minimum wage.

Minimum wage is 1386 gross, which is ~1030 net and that's less than 6 an hour.

Grzegorz, you can do better than that. Now Grzegorz, I am going to treat you like a grown up. You have to be consequential, you can't be a slippery p1g, once you have pressed the button those words are yours. Period

Not sure what you are talking about... but in Kraków for two double rooms in Novotel you would have to pay 250-300 EUr per day and It's far from being the most luxury hotel there.

exactly, the truth is not liked here lol..so prepare to be hammered for statements like that.

Not really, they ignore it just like all the other inconvenient facts.

From what I've seen, the Czech Republic is no better than Poland.

Czech Republic has hardly any problematic areas, Poland has many of them. It's pretty much as If a country was made out of Wielkopolska, Małopolska and Warsaw city put inside of it. Economically It simply is better no matter how hard you try to spin it. Hungary also had been significally better until few fears ago, lefties screwed it up and now It's hardly better than Poland.
Grzegorz_   
7 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

Because if you had travelled to third world countries, I would not expect you to consider life in Poland, anywhere near third world.

You are again proving wrong things, which I have never said are right. Poland is not anywhere near third world just like It isn't anywhere near the first one.

Delphi and other have given their points regarding the automotive matters and I do not need to repeat ehat they've said.

The thing is that I proved you wrong (regarding so many new cars in Poland) and they weren't able to deny it (as It's not possible to deny facts). It's not that there are so few cars in Poland but that so many of them has been imported as second hand vehicles. Lower-middle class Germans buy new VWs, Opels etc. a few years later they sell them to poor Germans and after a few more years they are sold to lower-middle class Poles. That perfectly shows a place of Poland on the European wealth map.

I was recently in Paris for four days with my family, and I use this as a comparison.

Uhmm you could spend as much for example in Kraków, starting from 300EUR/day for hotel.
Grzegorz_   
6 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

1,500 PLN in Poland, may go a lot further than 1,500 Euro in France.

Please prove it.

Poland is still inexpensive in comparison to many other European countries.

Prices of consumer goods are pretty much the same, housing is nominally cheaper (although compared to salaries much more expensive), utilities are little cheaper and on the rise, fuel is almost the same, the only things significantly cheaper are services provided directly by activities of individuals i.e. hair cut, massage, dental things etc. as simply the poorer a country is, the cheaper they are. Cost of living in western Europe is definitely higher than in Poland but I would say that depends on the country It is 40%-100% higher, definitely not a lot more than +400%.

But what you're forgetting is that the cost of living is drastically lower in the country towns.

Fascinating. What about the value of the cars on the road ?
Grzegorz_   
5 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

There are 196 countries in the world and the above applies to each one of them.

Definately not. One may be for example a credit risk analyst in Poland and make 2500 PLN a month, the same job in Germany pays 2500 EUR and gives as much or more disposable income monthly as annually in Poland. That's the difference.

Have you ever been to a third world country?

Whay do you ask ? You want to prove that Poland is richer ? I've never said it isn't.

I would consider Poland to be middle European.

Interesting. I can think of 8 countries poorer than Poland (out of 46 I think) and most of them are either small or very small even by European standards.
Grzegorz_   
5 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

And many of those "new" cars end up in Poland and suchlike after a couple of years.

That's right.

The value of the cars on the road is what you should be looking at, not the amount of new cars.

International organizations, banks and all use new cars sales as one of the indicators describing countries' level of economical development but Delphi knows better, Delphi the innovator :)) So Mr Delphi, what's the "value of the cars on the road" in comparision with other European countries ?
Grzegorz_   
5 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

So GUS stats are unadequate , period.

Underground economy is ~25% of GDP in Poland, the same as in other new EU member states, Greece or Italy, little more than in Spain, in most old EU countries It is ~15%. Do you agree with that or do I have to provide dozens of links... ? If so then the distance between Poland and Italy is the same as in official statistics, between Poland and Germany or UK we are not 10 light years behind, It's "only" 9.5.

The point I was making I think many times over this thread was: There are poor people in Poland as they are in any other country, because the world is not a paradise. However, Poland does surprisingly well, it is an OK country to live, and the poverty where it exists is hardly screaming.

Surprisingly well ? I remember you saying how many new cars you see on the streets... actually this is a really good indicator, so here we go: annual new cars sales in Germany: ~3 million, in the UK, France, Italy: 2 million each, in "poor" Spain: 1 million, in little Belgium 550 thousand, in OK country to live ? 320-330 thousand.

Have fun - without me here.

Please come back and comment on the car sales statistics. Are all these new SUVs you see unregistered or what ?

The new moneyed class/middle class is firmly in place in PL, circa 2011.

No doubt but It's at most 20% of the society and ~80% of that is hardly a lower-middle class. In Poland you can work hard and still be poor, you can be well educated, work hard and still be poor, you can even work hard, be well educated, have a "good" job and still be poor. It definately wouldn't happen in a really developed country. We are in the middle between 3rd world and developed countries.

I heard about multi-generations sharing homes

LOL ! Do you know how much of a typical flat average monthly salary in Poland can buy ? Depends on the area It is 0.2-1 m^2.
Grzegorz_   
4 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

Monia, Antek, can you answer my post #398, page 14 ? Just to make it clear what you mean.
Grzegorz_   
3 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

So you both say that official statistics in case of Poland are unreliable because of enormous underground economy and because people don't say the whole true, so we should concentrate on things like cars Poles own etc, right ?

Definitions of poverty vary considerably among nations. For example, rich nations generally employ more generous standards of poverty than poor nations.

This is the key part of your post.
Grzegorz_   
3 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

yea, one of the representative sample (one of one thousand) would be

Hmm we can go on this way for the next 100 pages... As I understand it, you don't agree that Poles living in Poland are generally poor people... Can you tell us what do you base your opinion on ?

Who is poor then ?

You say Germans are poor and Poles aren't ?
Grzegorz_   
2 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

Poverty is going hungry, not having adequate shelter, not having utilities, being cold and not having adequate clothing.

That's your definition of poverty. You think that poor means basically homeless. For me a person, who can't afford going out to the cinema or pub once a week or to the gym twice a week or yes, having holiday once a year simply is poor. You may think that people, who have to wear second hand clothes or can't affod buying newspapers are not poor but that's just your strange point of view.

You Grzegorz seem to be an economy expert.

No, I don't think so.

Do not you think massive imports from China paid in USD simply mean creating inflation on world's scale and involving the rest of the world in it. Not that all other countries are not guilty.

Printing more and more dollars definately has an effect on global inflation but I wouldn't blame it on import from China, some countries (for example Germany) are doing well reagrding trade with China. The problem is not that America buys a lot from China and elsewhere but that It doesn't sell enough abroad. In my opinion that's because for decades American economy had been driven by domestic demand fueled by cheap and easily available credit, so the companies didn't pay enough attention to needs of foreign clients. American made cars are hardly exported as they are too large, need too much fuel... why bother with some strange small cars for Europeans and others, when we can can sell millions of "normal" cars at home - looks like that was the reasoning... Now the problem is that domestic demand decreased and the companies haven't adopted the export-oriented model yet.
Grzegorz_   
2 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

"If" is crucial. IF. And IF NOT?

IF NOT then we all will be in deep s*it.

What do you mean by the right track?

American economy is still very competetive, the crisis is due to demand gap, which is a result of banks' moving to more restrictive credit policy. Once the economy adjust to the new situation and they stop wasting so much on stupid wars, I see no other problems for America.

However, constant borrowing, more and more, means starting a spiral with no exit.

Indeed. This is what happens in many countries including Poland. We spend tens of billions annually just on interests from existing debt.
Grzegorz_   
2 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

If the US economy get back on the right track, they will repay it without much problems.

Tell me Antek_ why didn't you answer to my previous post ?
Grzegorz_   
2 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

I ask you: Is the US debt going in trillions something not to be worried about?

I'm more worried about the Polish one.

The 200% means twice as money is borrowed by the Government

When ?
Grzegorz_   
2 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

Is this possible ? If they live "totally on debt" now ?
Grzegorz_   
2 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

The 2011 forecast for US is 100%, meaning the US live totally on debt.

Eh ? It seems that you don't even understand basic indicators.
Grzegorz_   
1 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

I'm really wondering about the reasoning of those who insist that most Poles are poor when

Hmm If somebody was writing here that winters in Poland tend to be very warm, I wouldn't need any agenda to disagree. Poland simply is a poor country.

by local standards at least, they're not.

What do you mean by local standards ?
Grzegorz_   
1 Jun 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

Poland is a land of many good opportunities but unfortunately for hard workers only .

A few weeks ago I was recruting for a job for 2300PLN gross, got almost 200 CVs, most of them from people with university degree, at least a dozen of them were really impressive... I'm not sure what you are trying to prove... That top 5% make quite good money in Poland ? Of course they do (although much less than top 5% in Germany or UK) but society (just like anywhere else) is mostly made of average Joes, who in Poland usually make 1600-2400 PLN a month. They ARE poor.
Grzegorz_   
29 May 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

Then we're no longer talking about poor people in any real sense.

What are you talking about ? Anyone who can't afford to purchase a second hand car for 8-10.000 PLN and spend 300-400 PLN monthly on fuel is poor by any civilized standards.
Grzegorz_   
29 May 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

$710 in Poland maybe equal to $3000 in Western countries

Nonsense. First of all "western countries" is a very broad term, for example cost of living in Oslo and some small town in Ohio are otally different but let's compare Poland with main old EU countries like France, Germany or UK. $710 in Poland would be no more than $1000 over there.
Grzegorz_   
29 May 2011
Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

The latest "average" I've seen is 3,200 PLN. That is gross pay.

Now It's ~3500 a month gross, which is ~2500 net = $890. However the median wage is ~2000 net = ~$710. What's most important is that Poland is definately not a low cost country anymore. These stories how much you can buy for a few PLN are nonsense. We're not the 3rd worlders but Poles in Poland are overall very poor compared to western Europeans, Amercians or Australians.
Grzegorz_   
27 May 2011
History / Poland's biggest historical blunder? [341]

No you have not: because you can not. The facts are as follows:

The fact is Poland did everything what was possible to create a real, independent Ukrainian state (as that was in her very own interest) but failed as the Soviet forces were too strong to push them away from Ukrainian lands and Ukrainians themselves were deeply divided and disorganized. But obviously following common sense is too difficult for Harry the expat.

Poland signed a treaty in 1920

You forgot about one small detail, It has never been ratified. What now ? Moving away from "Poland stabbing Ukrainians allies in the back" to "proving" that Konzentrationslager Majdanek was a Polish death camp as 2 guards were possibly half-Polish, half Ukrainian ? Don't you find it pathetic to be an internet troll being so old ?

I haven't prepared anybody for FCE for at least seven years

CAE now ? Wow, what a career, congrats Mr "expat" :)))
Grzegorz_   
25 May 2011
History / Poland's biggest historical blunder? [341]

Where you for or against the parts of Poland which were majority Ukrainian being part of Ukraine? Of do you only support self-determination for Poles?

I support self-determination for everyone, unlike you.

However, given the way that Poland stabbed her Ukrainian allies in the back

I was proving it to be nonsense several times. Your strategy is obvious for everyone, who is a long time member of these forums: flood the opponents with so much nonsense that they will get tired responding to that, especially when they have life outside of this place and more serious things to do than preparing some kid for FCE or writing reviews of 3rd rate takeaways.