Posts by factsnotfiction

factsnotfiction

21 Mar 2012

Life / Struggling young Polish couple - try to solve their problem [176]

Still wages are much healthier on the German side than on the Polish side. Just saying - facts-not-fiction.

That's if you're one of the fortunate ones who can find work. With 20% unemployment in FFO and similar disaster stories elsewhere, high wages mean nothing if there's no work.

Because of customers from Germany, right ?

Indeed. But these customers are usually ones with money - poor Germans, usually quite nationalist, won't go across the border.

They get handsome benefits for unemployed.

You need to work to get them first, and they're time limited.

Because those flats on the German side of the border cost only fraction of flats in Poland.

Indeed. All about supply and demand.

You mean German side of the Oder ? In a sense of immediate area ?You may be right in a way but still they got better infrastructure and of course if you are omitting Berlin !

The infrastructure might be better, but what use is it if no-one can pay for it there?

Berlin is an equal mess. The city is bankrupt, they have huge unemployment - it's not the paradise that tourists think it is. The disaster with the S-Bahn says it all.

factsnotfiction

21 Mar 2012

Life / Struggling young Polish couple - try to solve their problem [176]

this is such a weird statement. there are SO many towns within easy driving distance to Germany along the Polish border and many right on the border. hundreds of thousands of poles could easily commute to germany for work, from their homes.

They could. Except - there is no work in Eastern Germany. It's still economically depressed, and the unemployment figures are far healthier on the Polish side than on the German side. Therefore - what would they be commuting for, when even Germans can't find jobs there?

huh? you mean like.......paint nails or cut hair for a living? how much does a car mechanic earn or a hair dresser in some little polish town on the german border?

Quite a bit, actually. If you go to any border town, you can see very busy hairdressers, shops, etc - they can easily charge higher than normal Polish prices while still making a good bit of money. They aren't quite earning German salaries, but they're usually earning much better than those in comparable small towns inland.

poorest in germany still pays euro.

That means nothing if there's no jobs to pay Euro. Ask yourself - why are flats in Frankfurt (Oder), Gubin (or is it Guben? I never remember which is which) and Gorlitz are occupied by Poles, not Germans. The towns bordering the Odra are doing incredibly badly economically - Germans are even trying to find work in Poland rather than Germany.

she owns a car so now she's considering looking for work in germany cleaning houses because she said she'd earn nearly 3 times as much.

She might be considering it, but she's not going to find it. She's living in dreamland (and it shows that she has no real world experience) if she thinks that people will hire a Pole over a German in that part of the world.

I appreciate that you're looking at it from a pure "you can earn more in Germany", but the reality on the ground is that the Polish side of the Odra is doing far, far better than the German side.