What if Poland was not in the socialist system?

I'm sometimes wondering where Poland would be now if it has not been in the socialism system right after the WW2 (for about 50 years). Would it be richer and more powerful than the current leading "Western" countries (Germany, Italy, France, etc.)?

I tend to think - it depends. I think in general terms Poles cannot govern themselves well and need some "outside power" so that they could stay focused. What do you think?

Poland would have been the second Japan by now ). LOL. Ask the former President.

Forgot to add - the current Polish president may tell you the same... Just like all other's in this century :]

bolo.. I somehow don`t understand your "logic" ..communism had been imposed by some "outside force" so ..hmm.. so the 3 sentences you`ve written already contradict eachother..

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And to give an anwser to your "question". Before WWII Poland had a GDP per capita almost as high as Italy. During WWII we`ve lost about 1/3 of our population.

If there would be no WWII and no communism then the population of Poland would be probably something around

1,3*38 = 50 milion

If our GDP per capita would be as high of that of Italy right now and the cost of living would be the same then our GDP would be 29,2*50 = $1460 billion in PPP

This would make us to the world`s 11th largest economy.

dream on wujek, you cannot compare poland pre ww2 and now, things have changed. for a country to be rich it must have a good infrastructure, nature resouces, and a income earner ie.. IT or tourism.....keep in mind that over 1 million poles are working overseas and are unable to have secure employment in poland....

A good judge of a countries economy is how much there is unemeployed and average worker earnings

"GDP would be 29,2*50 = $1460 billion in PPP"

It's not always true that when there are more people living in the country, the richer that country is. Sometimes it's just the opposite - the more people, the higher unemployment, and more money spent on social needs (Poland has "free school system", "free education" etc.). So in short - I don't know the answer...

Poland is a third world country and will never catch up to western countries.

The current political situation is a disgrace, what a disgrace this bloke A Lepper is, he is the cause of many problems in Poland.........how can a person with so little political support command so much power.
The poles need to get their act together before they can talk about increasing GDP.

This may offend some people, but it is the absolute truth

Well, that kind of bullshit dosn`t reqire any comment.

sorry if I have spoken the truth wujek....truth sometimes hurts

The only thing that hurts here is your head.

People create the economy - the more people the larger the economy. Even the unemployed create GDP.

So why does the UK have a bigger economy than Germany,Russia,Nigeria,Indonesia which all have larger populations?

So why does the UK have a bigger economy than Germany,Russia,Nigeria,Indonesia which all have larger populations?

do you want to say that we are among countries like somalia,iran,irak,bangladesh? are you saying the truth or trying to offend us?

It's too dare statement. Poland isn't a 3-rd world country anymore; and it will be developing faster than the current "well-off" countries because it's now in their interest too that Poland is well-developed. Otherwise, other countries in the EU would have to pay more than they currently do.

Iran isn't a 3rd world country (they have lots of oil;).

Generally I think - like genek wrote - countries who have oil will be winning the economic race in the future... I wish Poland had more oil in their natural resources (I know they have lots of coal, but it's not very efficient source of energy and it's costly to mine).

UK dosn`t have a larger economy than Germany - as you know Germany has the largest population in Europe - and it also Europes largest economy.

Everything depends on the efficiency of the workers (both white and blue collar staff) - this efficiency is being determined by:

- the culture of a particular country as well as its religion - which determines the general atitude of the people torwards work - as well as consumption.
- the political system of a country and state policy - which allows that atitude to be turned into reality.

If those two factors are optimal then every additional citizen creates an added value to the economy.

However if those two factors aren`t optimal then the country isn`t using its full potential. The examples of that are Russia (which is optimizing the use of its potential), Nigeria as well as Indonesia.

Poland - never - had been a 3rd World country... During the Cold War the UN had divided the world into ...3 cathegories...

...the 1st World - US, Canada, W. Europe, Japan..
...the 2nd World - the USSR and Eastern Europe...
...the 3rd World - everybody else...

Jeez..

Iran is a 3rd World country by all means - becaouse of its development level.. as well as according to the UN definition..

Countries who will have nuclear energy, hydrogen-cell technology, and later on fusion power, are going to win the economic race in the future..

And coal is good, cose when the oil prices are going rise a little bit higher, it is going to be ceonomicly feasable to produce oil out of coal.

OK, but I don't think the US or EU will allow other "developing" countries to get the nuclear energy (note Korea or Iran . I think if Poland wanted to have nuclear energy there would be some problems too.

I had no idea Poland was ever considered 3rd world, certainly was never viewed that way by myself or anyone I know from England.

why do you compare iran and north korea to poland mate?i don't think there would be any problem with that.nuclear energy is a must for civilized countries. it's IF but WHEN we will build our first nuclear power station

I wish it was - it would be nice to live in Poland if the prices weren't that high as they are now...

it's not IF-sorry

I wonder if there have been studies performed on working efficiency in Poland. Younger people are efficient I think; I'm not sure about the efficiency of the older generation (meaning mostly their attitude towards work).

maybe because it's a popular news story nowadays...

Hmmm... you really do have some problem - do you ?

Poland is not a "developing" country and we had a nuclear weapon program 1970s - but as a Soviet satelite we weren`t allowed to have our own nuclear weapons, though nuclear weapons were always stored here.

And courently we`ve just started a new nuclear programe.

So soon Poland will have children that glow in the dark!!!

"Childhood cancer around nuclear installations has been studied in recent years, particularly in the United Kingdom but also in other countries. The early studies were prompted by the suggestion of a 10-fold raised level of childhood leukemia around the Sellafield nuclear site in England, which was confirmed and followed by the identification of generally smaller excesses around some (but not all) other nuclear sites in the United Kingdom. Marked excesses have not been reported in other countries. The increased leukemia rate around Sellafield has been further investigated by examining individual cases in detail in epidemiological cohort and case-control studies. The raised incidence seems to have been concentrated in children born in the local area but not among children who moved in after birth and was particularly associated with fathers who had experienced higher levels of occupational external ionizing radiation exposure at Sellafield before their children's conception. The underlying cause of this statistical association is not yet clear, but the findings have important potential implications for radiobiology and for protection of radiation workers and their children"