Law / The Euro, is it a good idea for Poland? [66]


What are you talking about?

The people of Iceland still have their currency-index linked loans in ISK, and these are the ones that are strangling the Icelandic people. But then again, you've proven beyond all doubt that you haven't got a clue about what's actually going on in Iceland.

Life / Polish pretense - what's the deal? [72]


Does that happen frequently to you?

Law / The Euro, is it a good idea for Poland? [66]


On paper.

The reality is that the second they abandon currency controls and let their economy function normally, they will be straight back into recession and in even more trouble. You spout so much stuff about "leftists", yet you support that most Communist of ideas, the currency control. Remember, they're also growing after a tremendous crash, which is quite normal in economics. It doesn't mean anything and the country is still saddled with a huge amount of debts that the ordinary people can't afford.


Except they didn't. It's another myth that they went after the bankers. And now their entire banking system is in the hands of foreigners, while ordinary Icelanders are stuck with ISK loans that are linked to foreign currencies, ensuring that they have no escape from them.


I think that is why it has to make sense for everyone before entry. Now is not the time, as it just doesn't make sense to abandon the flexibility of the Zloty in these times. It makes sense for Latvia to join in 2014 because their currency is already pegged to the Euro, but the Zloty isn't. Also, in these troubled times, it makes absolutely no sense to spend money trying to peg (and defend) the Zloty against currency speculators.

Law / The Euro, is it a good idea for Poland? [66]


Oh dear. If you call happiness the current situation where they have severe debts to the now-foreign banks and no prospect of actually paying off these debts, then your grasp of economics is even shakier than I thought.

It is interesting that you seem to think that not having money and being unemployed is a source of happiness however. Personal experience?

Love / Are Polish girls open to foreigners? [78]

Your rants about EU passports are amusing, but sadly way off target. Family members of EU citizens have the right to live/work anywhere in the EU.

Law / The Euro, is it a good idea for Poland? [66]


The country is not "ok". In fact, as I keep pointing out, Iceland is still in severe trouble with debts. In fact, the whole Icelandic system is still in a complete mess, and worse still, their entire banking industry has been sold abroad for not very much money.


Not quite. Many Greeks quite happily did things without a receipt or quite happily got paid cash in hand. They're now getting punished for their own collective greed, nothing less.

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]

Do you know anything about Ukrainian economics?

The "Russian" east is the wealthy part. Western Ukraine is crushingly poor, and the language issue also complicates things. In Kyiv, despite being majority Ukrainian, the language of the streets is Russian, not Ukrainian. Western Ukraine is also home to the most nationalistic elements, so that would also hinder growth. Dividing Ukraine is simply a non starter for so many reasons.

Also worth pointing out that many ethnic Russians do not associate themselves with Russia.

Law / The Euro, is it a good idea for Poland? [66]


Oh dear. Your grasp of economics is amusing, because if you knew the first thing about Icelandic economics, you'd know that you're completely and totally wrong.

studiotendra.com/2012/12/29/what-is-actually-going-on-in-iceland

Iceland is in a terrible mess and with no real way out of it. The government requires businesses to deposit their foreign exchange into the bank and imposes harsh capital controls relating to the flow of money. The ISK exchange rate is around 40% less outside of Iceland than in Iceland, and the way that debt works in Iceland is effectively strangling the people. The consequences have been very, very severe and there's no sign of anything getting better soon. I mean, as a supposed right winger, you should be supporting the free market, yet you're holding up Iceland as a good example despite the severe restrictions on business.


Argentina is also in economic trouble. The mere existence of the blue dollar should tell you a thing or two. Again, the people are in trouble as it is very, very difficult to get USD or other currencies there and the peso is extremely unstable.


Works well for governments, but not for ordinary people. Again, if you knew the first thing about these countries, you'd know that loans are normally linked to stable foreign currencies and so defaulting doesn't change anything for the ordinary people.

Law / The Euro, is it a good idea for Poland? [66]

And when some of the leading economists in Poland with no connection to PiS say wait, what do you do then?

It's pretty obvious to anyone with the faintest grasp of economics that Polish accession to the Euro will be considerably trickier than Slovakia, Cyprus, Malta, etc.

Law / The Euro, is it a good idea for Poland? [66]


It does work in some ways that you simply don't see. It removes the risk for businesses of exchange rates.

Quite a lot of Polish businesses got burnt badly with the crash in the value of the PLN in recent times. I know one German investor who lost around 200k EUR in one year because of this.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2810]


I don't recall any Americans liberating Poland in World War 2. In fact, I distinctly recall the American President selling out Poland at Yalta.

UK, Ireland / Benefit cuts for Poles in The UK? [143]


Absolutely. The country was relying on house prices rising to keep control of consumer debt, which was simply not going to work in the long run.

I think several monsters have just gone completely out of control - the NHS, the benefit system, etc.

Real Estate / Best and worst months of the year to find a flat to rent in Poland? [39]

At least with Sopot, you'd be able to rent it out in summer easily enough. I know some people working for Sony there on really good money, but all of them live in Sopot because of how bad Gdynia is. It's the same with Gdansk, there are some nice enough areas, but most of it is just horrible.

Amazing how people buy property without doing their homework though, a ten minute drive around Gdynia would tell you that there's nothing happening there in terms of entertainment.

Real Estate / Best and worst months of the year to find a flat to rent in Poland? [39]


Doesn't surprise me. The price of it is just totally out of touch with reality. No-one with money would live in Gdynia, they would be in Sopot. Gdynia is an awful place to live, there's nothing happening there and it's absolutely boring. Good place to work, but terrible place to live.

Language / POLISH 18 - 30 years old know MUCH BETTER ENGLISH language than their own native language! [102]


Does he not live in America?

History / What do Poles owe to Germans? [396]


All of it, as it was adopted illegally and more or less abolished democracy in Poland. If you're interested in this, there are some news articles online written at the time that more or less say it straight that Poland had become a dictatorship with the 1935 constitution.

I'm not convinced that the Government-in-Exile was neccessarily the legitimate representative, as it completely failed to hold any elections and itself split at one point. It's a shame, as had they been more effective at creating a parallel Polish state abroad, they might have been more of an opposition rather than an irrelevance.


I thought there were no Polish representatives at Yalta?

Real Estate / Poland online property ownership checker (government website) [19]


Good question. If you're buying a property, then they should give you the number without any problems, because a reluctance to do so suggests that they're up to no good.

It's worth bearing in mind that some properties don't have a KW number, but you can apply for one. As far as I know, you need the KW number to sell anyway.

For your own property, it might be on the akt notarialny, or you can get it from the Urzad Miasta for a small fee. For someone else's property, it might be possible to get if you have a valid reason to have it. I certainly obtained several in the past by merely paying the right fee and writing a letter.

Real Estate / Best and worst months of the year to find a flat to rent in Poland? [39]


I think it's a reflection of the almost total lack of professionalism in the property market, to be honest.

Real Estate / Astounded by the poor value of residential property here in Wroclaw [92]


Really?

I'd love to see how you could afford a place of your own in London without subletting.

History / What do Poles owe to Germans? [396]

In a hurry, replying quickly


Yes, that was interesting. However, I've never found anything to suggest that this was anything other than a symbolic act, as it didn't carry any legal significance at all.

I would be very interested to know if any of the decrees by the Government-in-Exile were transposed into Polish law after 1989.

The modern day Polish state has done absolutely nothing to counteract the Communist era legislation, and has routinely endorsed it by prosecuting people under those laws. They've gone after Jaruzelski and friends by prosecuting them under the 1952 Constitution, not under 1935 or 1921. The name of the State might have changed and the Constitution might have changed, but to all practical extents, the PRL is recognised as the legitimate Polish government at that time.


But are you sure that it didn't have the authority? The presence of Mikołajczyk as Deputy Prime Minister after resigning as the Prime Minister of the Government-in-Exile certainly gave a great deal of legitimacy to the parliament at the time, along with Prime Minister Morawski.

And the final question : if it wasn't a legitimate regime, why does the modern day Polish state recognise it?


Would you agree then that the 1935 Constitution and Government-in-Exile were therefore illegitimate too?

Life / What are the things which cause culture shock in Poland? [164]


Yes. The amount of trouble caused by this is incredible.

History / What do Poles owe to Germans? [396]

The modern day Poland recognises the laws created from 1944-1989 as legal and binding. If they didn't, why did they go after people for Communist-era crimes using Communist era laws? Many of those laws are still in force, too.

The situation is clear legally, as the PRL was constituted according to the rules in force at the time. The fact that the parliament that pushed through these rules was a puppet parliament is neither here nor there, as we're speaking about the strict legality of the situation.

As I keep saying, morally it was illegitmate, but it was legal.


You're claiming that the situation wasn't legitimate, so surely you should prove this. Polish legal theory is clear on this, the Governments from 1944 to 1989 are recognised as being part of the legitimate Polish state. There was no reboot, no reset after 1989, the law remained in place until amended. Remember, the PRL constitution remained in force until 1992.

I think you also seem to confuse the role of the Soviet Union. It was Poles doing this to Poles, the Soviets merely assisted by their mere presence. But even their presence was legitimate under the law at the time.

Life / The Best Things About Poland [23]

The funniest thing about the above two posts is that Poland actually has a more liberal immigration policy than most of Western Europe.

History / What do Poles owe to Germans? [396]


Except it wasn't unlawful. The Polish state had more or less ceased to exist, and certainly the Colonel's government in London was not legitimate or lawful by any stretch of the imagination. The Lublin government met all the requirements for sovereignty, and was recognised as such internationally. And as I keep saying, their actions were in accordance with the legally implemented 1921 Constitution. Of course, it was amended to suit them, but it was all done legally in terms of constitutional theory.

I've already explained to you how Polish constitutional theory works. The Lublin government derived its authority from the 1921 Constitution and the country functioned according to that document from 1944 to 1952. Every act on paper during that time conformed to the Constitution, and the laws passed were in accordance with it. It was an old Communist trick of gaining legitimacy on paper.

As for laws, let's go back and look at the recognised Polish Government. We had the establishment of the Tymczasowy Rząd Jedności Narodowej , which had the most legitimate claim to being the lawful Polish government at the time. It fulfilled the internationally accepted principles of sovereignty, it was agreed to by both the Lublin Governments and the Government-in-Exile, and it was considered internationally to be the reconstituted Poland. This body organised the 1947 election, and thus gave legitimacy to the Communist government. In terms of pure law and theory, this process was legal. Morally, no, but we're not discussing morals.


And can you provide any proof that the process wasn't in accordance with the 1921 Constitution? I've read the document more times than I care to count, and I can't find anything that suggests that what the Communists did (create a national unity government in times of crisis, hold an election as soon as was possible) was unconstitutional.

The 1947 election law was entirely in line with the Constitution. The 3xTAK referendum amended the Constitution (again, in line with the requirements set out in the Constitution) - ultimately, the process was legitimate in terms of law. If it wasn't legitimate, how could they try people today in court under the laws passed from 1945-1989? Every single act since 1989 has confirmed that the PRL was the legitimate authority in those times. If you're aware of the Polish legal system recognising the Government-in-Exile's decrees instead, I'd love to know more.

If you don't even know the principles of sovereignty, how can you talk about the subject? You should start with Westphalia, as certainly the Polish State in 1945 conformed to this.


Europe, 1989-present.

Food / "Poland - it's the new Provence of food" [56]


Rather obvious that you have never actually eaten good Polish food, despite your attempts to claim that you associate with high society.

Real Estate / Supply vs Demand - How long can contractors continue to push? Krakow [15]


Which confirms my point.

Rodzina na Swoim was actually not that good at all, particularly as it usually came with higher deposit requirements and higher interest rates once the promotion ended.

Life / Men in Poland in the forest? Just men? [133]


I would love to see these pictures too. In fact, I'd love to see pictures of many of his claims on here.

Real Estate / Supply vs Demand - How long can contractors continue to push? Krakow [15]


Not necessarily, as Rodzina na Swoim came with many conditions and wasn't particularly favourable towards new builds anyway.

Life / DUI first time in Poland [13]


They all say that.

USA, Canada / What do Polish people think of the USA [287]

Just to back up your point.

dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/vctoc.htm

A comprehensive guide to driving law in California. Obtained easily.