Rich man, poor man - today`s Poland

It's been always a mystery to me, why so many Polish people are successful entrepreneurs in the States, and before they got there they were just regular employees. Is it the easiness of starting a business? Or just the pressure to do something or starving? Is it the culture of the new country, where people are willing to scarify more for money and are getting more for their money? Is it the weather? Are people are too depressed to be motivated?

Hmm, generally, Poles are very enterprise-oriented.

This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition, though necessary both to establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments. That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is often most unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages.

-Adam Smith, the father of modern economics and capitalism, in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759).

And that is the most important lesson which the so-called former communists made capitalists now, people of the Adam Smith Center, shoult learn.

How Pope John Paul II and Poland Overcame Communism

Laborem exercens
Addressed by the Supreme Pontiff
JOHN PAUL II

It was precisely one such wide-ranging anomaly that gave rise in the last century to what has been called "the worker question", sometimes described as "the proletariat question". This question and the problems connected with it gave rise to a just social reaction and caused the impetuous emergence of a great burst of solidarity between workers, first and foremost industrial workers. The call to solidarity and common action addressed to the workers-especially to those engaged in narrowly specialized, monotonous and depersonalized work in industrial plants, when the machine tends to dominate man - was important and eloquent from the point of view of social ethics. It was the reaction against the degradation of man as the subject of work, and against the unheard-of accompanying exploitation in the field of wages, working conditions and social security for the worker. This reaction united the working world in a community marked by great solidarity.

These words corresponds with Adam Smith and remain valid always 'when the machine tends to dominate man'.

(leaving Soviets' mistakes aside - if we talk about realities and socialism purely)

Hadn't Pope seen any factory then in the non-socialist, christian west, where workers were not different? He should have mentioned workers in the west too. At least, workers in Soviets were trying to speak their voice. Workers in the West had no voice, still not..

From theological point of view, Pope contradicted with St. Paul who had supported worker movements in Phisidian Antiochia where he gave his first speech during the worker revolts there and the result was workers were winner there. But, St Paul was a tent maker, a worker, unlike these religious scholars today, priests, imams, etc etc. who don't understand workers..

Do you like this 'Pope's' last will?

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ByNVz7MTSho

50 minutes video. too long for me to watch. which minutes shall i watch?

It still has a long was to go but Poland is progressing. They say China is becoming wealthy but that's on overall GDP definitely not per capita and gross national income in which it lags behind with the 6th spot. The US is still the leader in GNP, GDP, and GNI.

tiptoptens.com/2011/02/16/top-10-most-richest-countries-in-the-world-2011/

Chinese statistics are often unreliable... for some reasons they want to look poorer than they really are...

Wrocław Boy is correct.


One could turn around and claim you don't seem to understand that the result we are presently at is not due to some "invisible hand," it is from attempts at redesigning society. Incidentally, what, in your opinion constitutes "artificial" design or redesign of a culture?

as the world's population continues to grow, leading to the associated problems with pollution, lack of water and food etc
there has to be a system in place to prevent consumerism from destroying the planet

Canada became the first country to legally pull out of the Kyoto Treaty yesterday
This is a green light for any other country to use the economic downturn as an excuse to renege upon their plans
to clean up their own back yard

Communism does not work as a system unless in an ant hill or a bee hive
Humans are not selfless

The idea of a group of fascist states competing with one another would be more likely to succeed though
George Orwell's 1984 might be around the corner

nor are we capable of understanding the self depends on the group- too many wannabe chiefs no matter where ya go.

Radda Barnen, a Swedish child aid organization, classified countries according to the level of mother`s quality of life.

First places for Iceland, Norway, Sweden.

Next go Finnland, Denmark, Austrialia, Great Britain, New Zealand.

USA - 25

Poland - 28

Albania - 44

Last places for Niger - 165
Afghanistan - 164

rb.se/press/pressmeddelanden/Pages/Press_mammaindex_2012.aspx

Remove Iceland from the list. Its a country that invents statistics for promotional purposes. Luxembourg doesn't count either as half the working population don't live in country.

You mean that scandal with creative accounting a few years ago?

But the report was made by Swedes, not Icelanders.

I like these Polish contrasts:

Not just that. Speaking to people who live there, it becomes obvious they fake a lot of stuff. The women rights for instance, in fact the women complain like hell, the men compile whatever reports just eradicate the facts. Education is supposed to be of high quality, however its such a small country they can miss off fundamental subjects and not even realize. So they don't know how compound interest is supposed to work...

Its a country that had a Soviet style of command economy and now is almost a one party state. Laws may exist, but nobody even reads them, never mind applies them. For instance they borrowed billions from abroad and linked the debt to the exchange rate as they were foreign currency loans. When this blew up, they went back and found out these loans were illegal and had been for 10 years so they revoked them and robbed the foreign lenders.

Iceland is Mafia state.

Krakow Technological Park facilities versus concrete stairs in the park nearby.

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Some guys drive 20 year old minis

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Merged:

poland right now

youtu.be/B_OpZr-wIT4

lol the comment just now "kibice z wami" or the fans or fanatics are with you guys. the ultras guys the ultras.

probably a bunch of right winger polak pride types there alongside the ultras basically irons crowd guys no? what i dont get is why she was mad and threatened to sidk the ultras on that guy holding the banner what was he even ho,ding up for her or the camera lady to threaten and attack him verbally this way guys?

^^Thanks pawian for those now retro photos. Does anyone have photos from Southern Poland from 2008-2014 - streets, cars, trams, buildings etc?

Does anyone here believe in this report:
wbj.pl/wages-of-richest-grow-fastest/post/130191
I think its manipulated and fake news,many people make over that 7200 pln gross except the English teachers.