Is Poland a poor country?

gumishu


Oh, I agree. That's why I said a relative absence - i.e., a lot fewer than in Afghanistan or Mali. Malnutrition is still there, but it's not as significant as in truly poor countries, such as, say, Poland soon after the war.

true that no children in Poland die of starvation or get seriously ill because of malnutrition save for some pathological cases

Mali? Why would you compare it to Mali??
But Bulgaria or Rumunia? I thought Poland was worlds away...

LEICA: can I Claim a UK pension.

sorry no you would have to work up to the age of 70 in the uk to get a full state pension ,if you have worked only let say 5 years you would not be entitled too one

Well, I compared it with Norway, which is one of the richest countries in the world, and with Mali, one of the poorest.

The worst and most undeveloped countries of the world probably do not resemble Poland at any point in its 1,000 year history. But Poland still has a long way to go to catch up with the richest of the Western nations.

I thought it would make more sense stay in closer area, geographically.
Why can't we be closer to Slovakia??

Oh, okay. Well, in that case, Poland's neither particularly poor nor particularly rich compared to other countries that were part of the Soviet Union or bloc. It wouldn't seem extremely poor to someone from a rich post-communist state, such as Slovenia, and it wouldn't seem exceedingly rich to someone from, say, Belarus or Bulgaria. Slovakia isn't much different from Poland in terms of development, other than the fact that they use the Euro. Slovenia is significantly better off, but it's a tiny country. Incidentally, both are beautiful, mountainous countries, and off topic, I recommend visiting.

Poland, like most of the Soviet bloc turned out to be second-class first world. It has neither the shocking third world levels of poverty nor are there populations living in shanty towns alongside ludicrous riches, as occurs in some rapidly developing nations. You have all your basic first world conveniences - healthcare, shelter, warmth, but it's not quite as good and you get crappy value for the work that you do.

No but I believe there are schemes running in Poland where you set up a business in the UK(10 minute job), hire yourself out from your UK company, to your Polish company, and can establish an entitlement to a UK pension. I don't know the ins and outs. You will have to your own research. It's a loophole that needs closing.

I am an native californian who live in Poland for 7 years and love living in Poland.

I have nothing bad to say about Poland; love the people, love the food and beer, love the landscape, love the culture and love everything.

I see more poor people in San Francisco or Los Angeles than Poland.

The mall in Poland were full.

Poland is not a poor country; people are educated, it has a growing economy, yes people move to find work but that every place in the world. I had to move to Los Angeles from San Francisco

Poland is a rich country !!!

that is great to hear Mike. Where in Poland do you live?

Okay, I don't know about Afghanistan because I haven't been there, but I've been to Iraqi Kurdistan and India, and Poland is paradise compared to what I've seen in those places.

Paradise? like what??? unemplyment? low wages? old russian built infrastructure?
And you said India? they wouldn't even hire unprofessional Polish people lol.

Of course they wouldn't hire unprofessional Polish people, as they have too much of an entitlement mentality and would demand higher wages for less work. Heck, my grandparents live in Eastern Poland and prefer to hire foreigners over Polish people because they consider Polish people to be lazy and expensive.

I don't know what planet you are on, ufo973, but while Poland lags behind in Europe, it cannot be compared with the third world.

In Italy, there are 690 vehicles per 1000 people.
In the United Kingdom, there are 525 vehicles per 1000 people.
In Poland, there are 508 vehicles per 1000 people.

In India, there are 18 vehicles per 1000 people. And people don't know what side of the road they're supposed to drive on.

So if most people can afford to spend their money on pieces of metal and hydrocarbon fuel instead of food, Poland cannot be that bad.

old Russian-built infrastructure
vs
no infrastructure

low wages
vs
no wages

And unemployment that has historically been bad due to mismanagement of the economy after communism is nowadays around the European average, which isn't great, but it's not Spain or Greece.

It's the simple things, such as clean, potable water, reliable electricity supplies, people knowing which side of the road they're supposed to drive on which count for a lot in my eyes.

Admittedly, these things were developed and inherited from Soviet times and progress has been slow since then. But jeez, you make it sound like Poland is a third world country, which it most certainly is not.

we would've had unemployment like Spain or Greece if Poles weren't allowed to live and work in the EU

I hardly think so, the most educated and determined people go abroad.
If it has affected unemployment rates in Poland, it is most certainly for the worse.

Silly argument. Are the Spanish and Greeks banned to work in EU?

Greeks and Spanish prefer to live on a dole apparently than to travel far to get work - Poles still work in Spain to this day in agriculture in spite of this 20 plus per cent unemployment there

according to the last year census around 2 million Polish citizens live abroad 'temporarily' -


serwisy.gazetaprawna.pl/praca-i-kariera/artykuly/640081,za_praca_wyjechaly_juz_2_mln_mlodzi_wyksztalceni_zdeterminowani_najlepsi.html

It coud also be a lingo issue - may not be able to speak other Euro lingos, sorry but most Euro guys' English is just horrible in spite of Brits' English domination in this part of the world. Plus Poles are probably more risk takers, sometimes bordering on a cavalier behavior. But then, hey, no pain no gain, right?

Back to the beef - Eurostats paints a pretty good pic of Poland's econ except a GDP slowdown. Inflation under control, which has never been an issue in the past few years, and the jobless rate might edge up one procentage point in '13.

Being poor or not, Poland has made a huge prograss in the past 20 years after switching from a planned to a market-driven econ. So comparing Poland to its western neighbors, whose developement has been uninterrupted since the US had poured money in the region after WW2, ain't right. They were rolling while Poland was making Polish Fiats, the so-called "state of the art" vehicle, according to the commies' propoganda. See some youtube pic from the old Poland (People's Rep) and now; that's a day n nite diff! In 20 yrs, not too bad!

Final note: T-Mobile considers the Polish market being saturated, meaning there are two or more cells per households. On top of that, each household has a motor vehicle and having a flat screen (LCD) tv aint a big deal over there. Polish tend to whine a lot about there current sit but, hey, there are more Beemers n Benzes over there then in the US:) Yep, they're poor.

Hey, gum, btw, as said earlier, curruption (40th on the list of the least corrupted nations) and ineptness that's what slows down Poland and it just didnt happen overnite, ie, under Tusk's, and it probably goes back to PIS..ed when in power.

corruption and ineptness date back to PiS - is this what you are trying to say???

mind you, PiS created National Anti-corruption Service (CBA Centralne Biuro Antykorupcyjne) which managed to uncover quite big corruptions schemes before it's chief has been removed

Gum,

quite frankly I dont care who and what created. The US State Dept cited Poland for its curruption and ineptness way back, ie, when Kaczynkys (spell?) were in office. Now let me ask you this: if they were not that corrupt why PIS got bumped off in the past elections? Bottom line: PIS or Tuskism, they need to clean this sh..t if they want to grow and get more foreign investment. And PIS's hooking up w/ skinheads/Legia hooligans ain't helping much.

Oh please, people need to stop blaming PiS for Poland's problems. They were only in power for 2 years, and they did some good things, such as introduce the "becikowe", which is tiny compared the Russian $9,000, but still better than doing nothing about the looming demographic catastrophe.

In fact, the thing I particularly dislike about the current government is not only its lack of meaningful pro-natalist policy, but the fact that it actually reversed such policies inherited from previous governments, left, right and centre. The infamous VAT increase on kids' clothes is an awful example of horrible, horrible policymaking.

Cut the crap! You are so ******* rich that other countries have to collect money for upkeep of your military.
You are either dumb like camels dung or just another pathetic troll.

Sorry, actually, PiS was against becikowe. It was passed by their coalition party allied with the opposition.

Watch at 5:30 and much earlier about other PiS lies: youtu.be/TQWsQVUhYc4

Thanks for the info ;)

That's brilliant. They explain it away by saying that they wanted to save money by implementing a more targeted, means-tested benefit that wouldn't be given away to rich and poor alike.

In this instance, I agree with LPR and PO. We all know how Polish means-testing works. It doesn't. And a universal benefit is the most reasonable solution.

do you expect someone to believe in that horsesh1t?

From all I've read on PF and other sources,it sounds to me like Poland has come a long way and continues to grow.I don't imagine it to be a poor country at all.

First of all what do you mean saying EXTREMELY POOR? For me poor is like in Africa, naked hungry childreen,no food, no health insurance etc.... I am Polish and all my life live in Poland in Krakow. This is a beautiful, clean town full of history and great architecture. Noone here is starving. Polish economy even is not in crisis. Who the **** is saying such ******** about poor country. People dont have high sallary but they look very good and it is middle Europe.

Maybe just poor.


europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEX-14-2584_en.htm

Of course not, Poland is not a poor country, by world standards. If you compare it with world powers, there may sometimes be big differences (and actually not in Polish big cities), but on the whole, I'd say Poland is a medium-rich country. Its HDI (Human Development Index) is stated as 'very high'.

And to be honest, I just saw an ad on a Polish page...seriously, what poor country has a big chocolate brand giving away seven Playstation 4s...? ;)