Quality of Life Index Poland 4th on a list of 10 European nations

Wonder what the pessimistics say. this is just the beginning! great things ahead for poland

journalism.co.uk/press-releases/justin-cobb-explains-why-relocati ng-to-will-be-a-good-business-move/s66/a554266/

Which other countries were in the index? Edit* I got the countries.

Just seems a bit random and they don't state which countries.

The same index says the UK is the worst place to live in.

Switch Gas & Electricity News: Quality of life index

I agree that Poland is a great place to live but I disagree as to the reasons they list.

The retirement age in Poland is male 65 female 60 2013.

They state it is cheaper but don't take average wages into consideration, which is very misleading at best.

Anyway, Poland is a great place to live but this index is just random stuff that should not lead anyone to any real conclusions.

This articles quotes few meaningless words from some guy. The ranking itself is quite old - 2010:

uswitch.com/gas-electricity/news/2010/09/22/is-the-uk-really-one-of-the-worst-places-to-live-in-europe/

They have funny set of parameters and this is result.

On the other hand this predictions are interesting:

They say that according to PwC salaries in Poland in 2020 will reach 50% of average American salaries. I am skeptic of the data presented. For example Turkish salaries seems higher than in reality. What do you think about it?

Average salary per month in time:

g.forsal.pl/p/_wspolne/pliki/1496000/1496894-srednie-wynagrodzenie-na-miesiac.jpg

Average salary per month in 2011:

g.forsal.pl/p/_wspolne/pliki/1496000/1496862-srednie-wynagrodzenie-na-miesiac.jpg

Average salary per month in 2030:

g.forsal.pl/p/_wspolne/pliki/1496000/1496878-srednie-wynagrodzenie-na-miesiac.jpg

It's not at all random: the stats are carefully chosen and manipulated in order to make Britain seem as terrible a place as possible.

As I said last year about these uSwitch press releases: My favourite example are the annual surveys which show that the UK is the worst (or second worst) place to live in Europe. Those surveys always mention supposedly high energy prices as one of the things that makes Britain a crap place to live and stress how expensive Britain is. They also make sure that the name of the company which produces the reports is publicised and get a quote from one of their executives. That company is uSwitch and they make money from encouraging people to pinch pennies by switching gas, electricity, water, telephone, TV, etc companies. No journalist seems to care that people who think they are poor (which they think after reading an article about how poor they are) are far more likely to try and save money by switching service providers!

I had to chuckle when I read this on the journalism.co.uk site you linked:

Quote:
"I have discovered in recent months that Poland is a hub of activity in the direct marketing field. Since I specialise in this industry, moving to Poland was an obvious choice to maximise my organisations development and growth."

So Poland is heaven for telemarketers and MLM scam artists these days?

Poland 34th in Prosperity Ranking by Legatum Institute* commenting Poles are amazed that the country is placed next to Italy and Kuwait.
" The Prosperity Index is distinctive in that it is the only global measurement of prosperity based on both income and wellbeing."

prosperity.com/#!/ranking
prosperity.com/#!/country/POL

*The Legatum Institute: "The Legatum Institute is an independent policy, advisory and advocacy organisation within the Legatum group of companies based in London, United Kingdom.[1] The Institute researches and promotes the principles that drive the creation of global prosperity and the expansion of human liberty. The Institute undertakes original and collaborative research and publishes case studies and ancillary literature. Recent initiatives include the launch of the Legatum Prosperity Index,[2] which measures prosperity across countries as a combination of material wealth and life satisfaction. The 2012 index expanded from 110 to 142 countries and the ranking is led by Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand."

Exactly seems like just a good title for an article. Just like Poland is the number one Central-Eastern European nation for German foreign investment, ahead of Czech Rep, Hungary, Russia... Sure Poland is developing and infrastructure is being built but there are other factors which bring in investors. A large (39 million) market, cheaper labor costs, less competition.

Indeed. (see Amazon opening 3 logistics centers in Poland in the near future)

That's only because Poland is few times bigger than Czechs and Hungary. If you checked direct investments per capita then it's actually lower than these countries.

Yes. Amazon is abandoning Germany because they were not willing to cope with strikes (typical American multinational corporation) and thought that they do not need to pay the wages that are standard in the logistics industry. I wonder: are these low paying jobs really what Poland wants? Because now the country is once more degraded to a provider of cheap labor.

I read an article recently, about Poland becoming the China of Europe.

I would take the whole list with a big spoonful of salt. NZ ranks up high even though the country has a broken school system and is overwhelmed by gang violence, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse for example.


Could well be, but we would have to take a closer look at what kind of jobs have been created in the past. Mainly in the call center and telemarketing industries? How many in software development? Any other significant industries?

No, Poles want to earn a lot, but they welcome any company giving jobs. Let them come and fight and then maybe will have to fight with salary level. Anyway Asian Tigers grew so fast not because foreign companies invested High Tech there, but they created high tech by them self with proper support of government.


So many that there are no unemployed programmers and salaries in IT have been one the fastest growing in last years.

No that's not what I meant. Poland on a 1 to 6 point system scored almost a 5 in attractiveness for investment (large market, low labor costs, lower transportation cost... overall more appealing)

More important than ranking of the countries is real result. And here foreign investments per capita in Poland are lower than in: Estonia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and Latvia. So in my opinion perhaps Poland is high in ranking, but when it comes to investing in Eastern Europe, then neighbors get bigger share.

Doesn't say much as long as these investments go into the creation of low paying slave jobs. What Poland really needs is high-tech industries, not packing parcels for Amazon.

I'm not disagreeing or arguing with you, I simply meant that those rating are meant for future prospected investors. Poland in general shows greater appeal because of all of those various factors. No one dreamed years back that South Korea or Ireland would be where it is today, but it happened. Poland is is a great (sometimes disastrous) geopolitical position in the heart of Europe between it's two largest economies.

No it's not. It's Belgium or Luxembourg.