Law /
Why is US $ getting so high or Polish zloty falling? [60]
Thanks again for the interesting discussion..... I'll comment below each item.
Does it matter what nationality I am? I live in Poland and pay taxes here. At what point am I "good enough" or "qualified" to comment? After 10 years paying into the decrepit system? What's the minimum criteria? Again, it's a Republic.... so Elvis has left the building, and socialism is on the way out....
Capital comes from SAVINGS. Teaching individuals to save and then not taxing them to the hilt is a good start. Also not teaching them to 100% depend or rely on the government for every little thing from cradle to grave would DRASTICALLY slash the "NEEDS" of the government budget.
Own country? Where are you from? Do you live in Poland? Is everyone in such a high ivory tower that we can't ask questions and comment? Anyhow, who's telling who how to run things? I'm speaking from the point of view of liberty and history. Empirical evidence proves my previous statements correct. If we want examples, we don't have to look further than Greece or Ireland..... BUT we could continue across the pond to the USA where it's quite possible they might go "tits up" because they over-extended themselves. So how long should we wait before sounding the alarm about BAD economic decisions?
It's justified when the majority of people in Poland are socialists who want the services to keep on functioning when there's a crisis. People here are simply not willing to accept slashed public salaries/cut pensions.
Ok, let me clarify are you labeling a majority of Poles as socialists? I agree that there are undoubtedly socialists still here in Poland, but I believe they are a dying and shrinking minority.
To that point, let's take a look at the young generation. More educated than ever before, and yet unable to find a job in their fields. It's a HUGE problem. I encourage you to talk to a recent graduate. I know a young man in his late twenties that just graduated SGH and all his classmates are JEALOUS that he found an internship making a measly 1000 zloty to the hand monthly. They've all been looking for work for about 8 months - some for 2 years!! Hoe long do you think an educated economist, doctor, or nurse is going to wait to get a job?? It's a key question. If young people don't believe they will get a fair shake, they will either leave or fight. In psychology it's called FIGHT or FLIGHT. It's a human reaction. We already have seen the FIGHT aspect in Northern Africa and some in the Arabic countries. We've seen a small bit of that in the UK. Don't you recall what happened jsut a few weeks ago?? We're about to see it in the USA, too but I don't know if it will be a fight there or not - it depends on the elections in 2012.
So, my question: Do you think young people will sit idly by while they get screwed out of their money, unable to save because the burden of previous generations is so enormous? Whatever "socialist" fantasies they were present will vanish as the tax burden becomes so great. Even Tusk even had to break his campaign promises not to raise taxes! He raised VAT to 23% (other VAT's raised as well) as well as excise taxes across the board on fuel, vehicles, cigarettes, alcohol, etc. etc.....
So when inflation is up, unemployment is up, social benefits are decreasing, and salaries are down, where do you think the chips will fall? I'd be shocked if we didn't see a protest or two in the next decade. I'd be further surprised if the young generation didn't overturn this "socialist" ways you referred to. Either that or start leaving in flocks. Oh, but wait lots of people did that already..... some came back, but lots didn't. Step one. We're waiting on step two. I know I'm not crazy because I was talking last week to the president of a large bank in Poland and he even echoed fears that young people could start protesting and doing the same things as seen in the UK or in Africa. What would you say if your bank's president said that? Would you take it seriously? Maybe it's time for people to start thinking about this.....
40 million zloty really is peanuts. It's what, 1zl for everyone in the country? They could simply cut the financial settlements to the provinces by 3 million each and the job would be done - and there wouldn't be much difference on the local level.
I see your point entirely. I guess I just don't agree there. I know in big corporations 40 million dollars can be called "peanuts", bit it is all relative. Poland is not the UK and not the USA. We don't hold the world's reserve currency and MOST external investors are not greatly concerned with Polish economy inasmuch that we can just continually print cash to monitize the debt..We can't run up a big or even mild deficits here because it WILL sink the country with no way out.
Everyone, we have to remember the state has NOTHING apart from what it can forcibly take from its citizens. So if I'm taking 40 million from Polish citizens, (or worse from other EU citizens), then the time will definitely come to pay the piper. THat 40 million would otherwise be saved or put to work in the economy. Failing to see this is a misunderstanding of how the free market works. When you take away capital (savings) from people no matter how much, it REDUCES the amount available to be used both for investments by companies and by consumers to purchase goods. Anything else is just robbery in disguise. "A fool and his money are soon parted." Let's NOT be fools with our money, even more so with other people's money.
Hi CP! Thanks for joining in the conversation.
Sure, lots of thing contributed to Rome's fall. But you have to admit the monetary policy was key. Don't take my word for it, read history. They over-extended themselves and started de-valuing their currency. It's not rocket science, rather it was a recipe for disaster. One that other countries are following. One that I hope Poland will avoid.
As for gold supply or production, maybe you know something everyone else doesn't? According to the world Gold production, gold output is around 2,000 tons annually. So to say "there's not enough" is not in the least bit true. Here's the chart: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_production_gold2.jpg