Yes. It's about capital staying in society and not being sucked out of it by 'markets'.
Funny, int it? 'Keep capital in society,' says t'feller who's cartin' his own brass off wherever it buys him more beer an' bigger dinners. That's champion socialistin', that.
Also most malls and train stations are free. Some fast food places make you use a code that you get when you buy food. Many bar mleczny don't even have bathrooms, though, which has always struck me as bizarre. Sit-down restaurant with no toilet facilities? They've got to keep their costs down, though.
What is the upside of leaving the decades of your life in the US, the family, friends, as well as the friendliest people on earth, only to be the loneliest guy in some town in Poland?
Your fame as "that guy from America" will be worth less than a cold cup of coffee in three days.
This is not true, toilets in shopping malls and on highways are cleaner in Poland than in Germany...and are free of charge. Toilets in restaurants and cafes are only for customers but are usually also cleaner than in Germany.
It's primarily a German practise. They even invented a term for it: sitzpinkeln.
It's because unlike western toilets, German toilets have traditionally featured a 'sh*t shelf' (some Polish homes have had this style of toilet too, in the past, imported from Germany).
Instead of just a round basin, such toilets also have a flat 'shelf' on which the faecally-obsessed Germans can inspect their poop 'for health reasons' ("hmm, colour und quantity of mein scheiße ist gut, consistency also ist wunderbar. Super, I add these results to der chart."). If you p*ss into such toilets standing up, the splashback from this shelf will shower the whole bathroom with urine. So, German men sit down.
These are the same people who managed to conquer almost all of mainland Europe, folks. I know, I know...
