Is Poland a poor country?

Very true, I know several people around the Lublun area on this, or less.

Very much so. A 3 bedroom house in some of those places costs less than a studio flat in a bad part of Warsaw.


Konin and Kutno are pretty high on my list.

That's still not a compliment. There are parts of every country almost, that are better than parts of the UK.
Is this not a pointless statement made by Dell? Water is wet kind of thing; thinking out loud with your head up your arse.

But is a fact. And Poland's economy is growing.

Posters, just look at the question.
Say as an answer, lets say: yes.
What kind of effects will the answer evoke?
Many will consider, somwhere inside their mind, that it's true.
I herebly disegree with closed question on the forum, what I've written several times.

I wanted to say one more thing:
he poorer the place it for viewers, the reacher in reality it it.
Just wanted to add it, because we, Polish, can expect a kind of a war between Church and pople who are in government.

Yes perhaps, but the country is depopulating to a huge extent, as has been shown on other threads. People like the now infamous Magda, won't return to Poland because she sees nothing there for herself, only a life of moving back in with her parents and receiving 100 Euro a month dole.

If an economy is growing after a period of mass emigration( Even last year, 50000 Poles received PRSI numbers from Irish tax office) can you say its growing. Kind of like saying your family is doing really well since you threw half the children out on the street.

1 in 5 on the Irish dole are Polish.

Milky the 1 in 5 is inaccurate by the way ;) but agree frikkiew is a Nazi. Well, could call him many things really but Nazi is about right. How anyone who supports the BNP can claim to talk about dignity is beyond me.

Am building a house just outside Lodz at the minute. Big enough as I never thought to convert square meters to the square feet I am more familiar with! Mortgage as percentage of salary is much lower than it would have been in Ireland. Worth noting though that our house is surrounded by bloody mansions that put many of the affluent regions of Dublin to shame, so there's definitely money here somewhere :D

The thing I've noticed here is the contrast between the wealthy and the poor in Poland, often side by side. Looking at Lodz its got a gigantic modern shopping centre Manufactura where the prices were enough to make me cough, certainly no cheaper than Ireland for most things and indeed more expensive for many. Massive carpark full of newish cars outside it yet ten minutes walk away you can find yourself in streets where apartments are boarded up or look ready to collapse yet people are still living there. It's making big strides though, must be said.

Poland's problem from an export side is that external economies are weak therefore demand is weak. Unsure if internal demand will be enough to keep everything ticking over

Cambridge

I've visited Poland five times in the last 12 months mostly on business- Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw and Poznan

My opinion is that mostly Poland doesn't seem like a poor country- there is some poverty visible e.g. beggars, winos etc. but frankly it doesn't seem any worse than Manchester, where I live!

I note that shop prices are not particularly cheaper than the UK and I am aware that average earnings are appreciably lower than the UK, but this for me doesn't qualify as 'poverty'; I would just say that perhaps the overall standard of living is a bit lower.

20y ago when I was in Nurmberg the differences were huge and easy to see. Now, in the archipelago of big cities one can't say that. May be this is just a false impression because the poverty tends to hide.

It's actually a rich country. It's the sixth biggest in the EU, with a very high HDI, second lowest homicide rate in the EU, 13th most visited country in the world, ranks 15 in world education, is the fastest growing EU economy and it has a very educated population. Only those who have visited Krakow, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Poznan, Sopot or Torun will trust me when I say the cities are definitely one of the prettiest in the whole world. It mixes modern with tradition in the best way possible. Wish poles all the luck in the world, and think they should appreciate more their own country. The poverty there is nothing when compared to third world countries. We're gonna be hearing a lot from Poland in the next years, so we might aswell update our reality on it and stop imagining it in black and white, as it isn't anymore.

What about this?

spiegel.de/international/europe/poor-lose-out-in-poland-s-economic-miracle-a-835931.html

Oh,come on!Rich compared to what,Bangladesh?Poland is still a very poor country when compared to Quatar,UK,Sweden,Norway,Luxembourg or Canada.

No Grubas. It's been an upper middle income country for years and is getting steadily richer. it will never be like Qatar unless they get rid of 95% of three population then discover massive LNG deposits. Then import a lot of very poor people to do the dirty work.

For somebody, who think that 460-480 EUR a month is upper middle income :)))

'Somebody'??

The World Bank, even. Over €260 per month is upper middle income. Poland is near the top end of the upper middle income countries. 59 out of 195 countries in the world.

But one would expect certain people here to see the glass as half empty rather than half full. However, don't worry,hanks to huge EU subsidies, income levels here may even rise a little further over the next few years.

data.worldbank.org/about/country-classifications

Poland is the 25th RICHEST country in the world according to the world statistics.

Polish love complaining more than anything else, that is why such absurd question...

Why,do you think this is the case?
To make a statement like this you must be able to back it up with reason.

59th richest, in fact.

Really Milky, you should try visiting other countries. Sme of them don't even have clean water.

??

21st, 22nd depending on source

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29

It's worth removing micro states from the list and looking at how wealth is calculated before arguing for the sake of it. Nevertheless, I think we can safely establish that Poland is very far from being a poor country.

Thats why life is turning worse every year.

Thats why general people are living worse life then during communism.

While the indeed are many sh!tholes, where people are even poorer, but if we consider civilised countries only, Poland is on the bottom of the cesspool, and there we have no perspecives to go up in forseeable future.

Worse then communism? really!!!

Really....

Capitalism is a game in which you MUST play, its not a fair game.

I know that I tell her the hardest things of living the the UK in the 70's wasn't the lack of provisions on the shop shelves more the lack of cash....but Communism wasn't fair or better then that.

exactly. So no matter what your personal beliefs are- it doesn't count for crap when the rest of the world follows a different ideology.

I suppose you didn't have to play during Communist times?

join the party and get privileges.sounds like a game as well.
Your definition is the same as Milosz used to describe life in the concentration camp.
Shakespeare even said "life is.........
Examples of capitalist games,, pretending to the public that there is no property bubble so they will be duped into purchasing. Polishforum or Polish5
Fill papers with irrelevant nonsense from--- Hired economist etc,sport, and titillation -- Tony O Reilly/Denis O Brien, Murdoch,Berlusconi; and then accuse the tiny opposition of been nutcases and eccentrics,enemies of the state and unpatriotic.

Communism... my parents have been normal working people, mother was waiteress, father a filling clerk. Every year, at vacation, we have had two weeks at the seaside, on return I was going on the summer camp for the next three weeks.

Capitalism, I work my posterior off in two jobs, and my 9 year old son have never seen a sea - I just cannot afford vacation of any kind.

But Poland is prospering greatly, sure it is...

why are you so poor,you must be on a lot less than minumum wage?? Please explain,if you don't mind because according to the bulk of people here Poland is booming;so you must be either stupid or lazy??

These people live in Warsaw and Warsaw sucks money from the rest of Poland.