Is Poland a poor country?

teflcatThreads: 6 Posts: 1,071 Joined: May 29, 11 ♂	Feb 17, 12, 23:17 #121
pip: there are shiitholes like this all over the world Exactly, but hey pip: Bialystok my turf, and a fine up-and-coming place which has seen amazing progress in the last ten years, especially since the previous corrupt President was ousted. Come and have a look. A great place. Don't you dare say Poland B!

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Feb 18, 12, 01:25 #122

milky:

Car, Petrol, Mortgage/rent,children

I do not consider any of these "essential", sorry :D

grubas:

I don't think you know what you are talking about

Naaaah. It's totally not like I had to take a small loan to pay for my first mp3 player :D
Your mum might have been delighted with Hilfiger prices in US because they will be significantly higher in Poland. Bargain by comparison. Still crazy expensive when compared to an average salary in Poland.

pip:

There is big money in Poland and a lot of it is Polish.

Agree.
There are also rural areas with 90% unemployment rate and if you are lucky enough to eventually land a job you get a great salary of 1,200 - 1,400zl (and spend 500 on petrol / tickets / commuting to the nearest city). I also personally know white collar workers earning similar money in well-established international companies. I actually know PhDs in biology working for less than that (in Kraków, to be precise, not in Białystok).
(having said that I also know white collar workers earning easily five-digit figures monthly. They do exist, however rare they are).

a.k.	Feb 18, 12, 09:38 #123
ladykangaroo: I also personally know white collar workers earning similar money in well-established international companies. I actually know PhDs in biology working for less than that (in Kraków, to be precise, not in Białystok). That all reminded me a recent job ad I've read. An engineer needed - salary: 2000 - 2500 PLN lol

milkyThreads: 10 Posts: 1,224 Joined: Oct 26, 09 ♀	Feb 18, 12, 09:51 #124
a.k.: There are also rural areas with 90% unemployment rate and if you are lucky enough to eventually land a job you get a great salary of 1,200 - 1,400zl Very true, I know several people around the Lublun area on this, or less.

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Feb 18, 12, 11:46 #125

delphiandomine:

Compare Warsaw to a grim ex-mining town/village in the UK and it's far better off, for instance. Jonny will tell you more than me, but in general - there are parts of Poland that are far better off than parts of the UK.

Very much so. A 3 bedroom house in some of those places costs less than a studio flat in a bad part of Warsaw.

Wroclaw Boy:

Walbrzych is an ex mining town and probably my second least favourite Polish city.

Konin and Kutno are pretty high on my list.

milkyThreads: 10 Posts: 1,224 Joined: Oct 26, 09 ♀	Feb 18, 12, 19:24 #126
JonnyM: there are parts of Poland that are far better off than parts of the UK. That's still not a compliment. There are parts of every country almost, that are better than parts of the UK. Is this not a pointless statement made by Dell? Water is wet kind of thing; thinking out loud with your head up your arse.

JonnyMThreads: 16 Posts: 4,487 Joined: Mar 9, 11 ♂	Feb 18, 12, 20:28 #127
milky: That's still not a compliment But is a fact. And Poland's economy is growing.

noreenbThreads: 4 Posts: 1,082 Joined: Apr 22, 09 ♀	Feb 19, 12, 13:39 #128
Posters, just look at the question. Say as an answer, lets say: yes. What kind of effects will the answer evoke? Many will consider, somwhere inside their mind, that it's true. I herebly disegree with closed question on the forum, what I've written several times.

noreenbThreads: 4 Posts: 1,082 Joined: Apr 22, 09 ♀	Feb 19, 12, 13:54 #129
I wanted to say one more thing: he poorer the place it for viewers, the reacher in reality it it. Just wanted to add it, because we, Polish, can expect a kind of a war between Church and pople who are in government.

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Edited by: milky Feb 23, 12, 08:38 #130

JonnyM:

But is a fact. And Poland's economy is growing.

Yes perhaps, but the country is depopulating to a huge extent, as has been shown on other threads. People like the now infamous Magda, won't return to Poland because she sees nothing there for herself, only a life of moving back in with her parents and receiving 100 Euro a month dole.
If an economy is growing after a period of mass emigration( Even last year, 50000 Poles received PRSI numbers from Irish tax office) can you say its growing. Kind of like saying your family is doing really well since you threw half the children out on the street.
1 in 5 on the Irish dole are Polish.

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Feb 23, 12, 12:43 #131

Milky the 1 in 5 is inaccurate by the way ;) but agree frikkiew is a Nazi. Well, could call him many things really but Nazi is about right. How anyone who supports the BNP can claim to talk about dignity is beyond me.

Am building a house just outside Lodz at the minute. Big enough as I never thought to convert square meters to the square feet I am more familiar with! Mortgage as percentage of salary is much lower than it would have been in Ireland. Worth noting though that our house is surrounded by bloody mansions that put many of the affluent regions of Dublin to shame, so there's definitely money here somewhere :D

The thing I've noticed here is the contrast between the wealthy and the poor in Poland, often side by side. Looking at Lodz its got a gigantic modern shopping centre Manufactura where the prices were enough to make me cough, certainly no cheaper than Ireland for most things and indeed more expensive for many. Massive carpark full of newish cars outside it yet ten minutes walk away you can find yourself in streets where apartments are boarded up or look ready to collapse yet people are still living there. It's making big strides though, must be said.

Poland's problem from an export side is that external economies are weak therefore demand is weak. Unsure if internal demand will be enough to keep everything ticking over
Cambridge

Fur de pazzi

Apr 21, 12, 18:13 #132

I've visited Poland five times in the last 12 months mostly on business- Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw and Poznan

My opinion is that mostly Poland doesn't seem like a poor country- there is some poverty visible e.g. beggars, winos etc. but frankly it doesn't seem any worse than Manchester, where I live!

I note that shop prices are not particularly cheaper than the UK and I am aware that average earnings are appreciably lower than the UK, but this for me doesn't qualify as 'poverty'; I would just say that perhaps the overall standard of living is a bit lower.

Peter Cracow	Apr 22, 12, 00:27 #133
20y ago when I was in Nurmberg the differences were huge and easy to see. Now, in the archipelago of big cities one can't say that. May be this is just a false impression because the poverty tends to hide.

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