These were 30-40% paycuts Delph.
Better to take a paycut and have a job than to refuse paycuts and end up unemployed, right? Germany has followed the same model and it has protected much of their workforce as a result - they know and understand that short term pain equals long term gain.
Some of them now have massive problems paying off their mortgages, late payments are the norm.
I do wonder what kind of mortgages they were taking if they have "massive problems" as a result of a 30% paycut. One would suggest that their financial planning hasn't been particularly sound - either they were living way beyond their means, or they are still spending much more than they need to.
Everyone is borrowing money, selling off things, cutting costs even more.
Are they? That's certainly not what I'm seeing here. Either you're associating with people who were massively living beyond their means, or it's simply not true.
Of course management and partners/owners had no paycuts though, just the opposite.
I'm pretty certain you won't be able to provide empirical evidence for this, just "word on the street".
One guy resorted to stealing office supplies to save money and as a bit of revenge. This was someone who wouldnt cross the street at a red light.
Revenge for what?
I think you must hang out with some pretty strange people if they're taking 30% paycuts in a society where they aren't the norm at all. I've heard of exactly one industry cutting their wages - the EFL industry, and that's because there is such intense competition on the market.
If you told me that people were taking 10% paycuts, I'd believe you - because that's what has generally happened in Germany. But 30-40%? Not believable.
Anyway, I've just made a few searches online and can find absolutely no mention of such massive paycuts in Poland. I've looked in the Polish media (both pro and anti Government), I've had a look in respectable newspapers - nowhere is such a scenario mentioned. There's some talk of pay being frozen, but that's about it. The story you tell of 30-40% paycuts seems to be just that - a story.