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@avidseries
After the Soviet Union collapsed, Poland, rather than transitioning slowly to a free market economy, pursued "shock therapy" by aggressively implementing bold and rapid market-oriented reforms under the Balcerowicz Plan. The result was an enormous amount of economic and social instability in the early 90s. But ultimately it paid off as Poland rocketed past its former Soviet Bloc allies on most important economic metrics.
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Crémieux
@cremieuxrecueil
I would like to remind people that Poland is almost as wealthy as Britain and it's on track to surpass it in the mid-2030s.
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David Watson 🥑
Honestamente
@HonestlyNaoSei
Poland is probably one of the nicest places to live in within Europe right now. Generally very clean and safe. Very friendly towards businesses and entrepreneurs unlike western Europe. Disclaimer: my wife is Polish but I promise she didn't force me to write this. Polska gurom
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Martin Cerny
@CernyMart
Sorry, you are just wrong. Poland never adopted anything resembling shock policy after the fall of USSR, it was quite the opposite. Government even has stakes in many companies today. My country Czechia really did shock free markets reforms in the 90' and it worked really well
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Luigi
@Luigi0440
I don't know where all those jokes came from. The poles I've met are some of the sharpest, hardworking people that are willing to sacrifice that I've run into. Just anecdotal, but glad to see the data prove that.
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Mikko Koivukangas
@KoivukangasM
Poland also joined the EU, which not only gave it access to the EU market but also subsidies. Happy for Poland. They seem to be one of the sanest European countries right now.
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Ejder Memis
@_sHx_
See that dip between 2005 and 2010? That’s the net-zero push. The UK phased out coal completely, while Poland kept building coal power stations, contributing 63% to its grid. Brits have been paying three times more for food that fuels industry for nearly three decades.
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Sean Dunn
@seanldunn
I'd kind of find it hilarious to see Oxford graduates moving to Warsaw to work as janitors or government clerks, just because the quality of life is so much better than London
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Mark Ambler
@VeteranGamerUK
It should not be understated,
@avidseries
, and I say this as someone who sees the issues with transnational organisations such as the EU. However the transformative impact that EU policy has had on former Soviet Bloc countries should not be understated, In my view Poland
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Lizbeth
@dinahgirl88
Big structural and economic changes aren’t without pain, but sometimes they’re the medicine that we need.
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Nick W.
@WooleyCm
I hope that Britain remains on top of Poland. They were once the mighty British Empire that the sun never set on, and I hope they get back on track later this decade. No Slavic country deserves to surpass any Germanic country. Let the Germanic and Latin peoples remain dominant.
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Marxist Free Nebraska
@MarxistFreeNE
Poland's big problem is it's chronically low fertility rate. Efforts to arrest this development such as financial incentives for family formation up to and including no taxes for life have failed to materialize but if they can right the ship in this arena the future is bright.
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Wanda
@taken_a
No, Balcerowicz 'bold' reforms weren't main factor responsible for the catch-up. Most of it happened much later, just look at the chart. Balcerowicz in many Polish circles is nowadays quite commonly reviled. And his later stint ('97-01) as the Minister of Finance was disastrous.
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DrDrilStein 🌽
@notistotny
What really rocketed the Polish economy forward was not the Balcerowicz plan, but rather joining the EU in 2003, with the resultant freedom of migration (and large remittances) as well as freedom for foreign firms to invest in Poland
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Dana: State Fair quality enforcer
@craisinsRfruit2
Everyone did “shock therapy”. Poland simply had a much more developed civil society *before Yalta* than most of the Soviet Bloc. There’s not one weird trick that explains Polish success—they are culturally more like the WEIRD countries than like Russia.
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darkness
@darknessatnite
This is not true. Poland purposely focused on small and medium sized businesses, in contrast to Russian shock therapy, which simply made national companies public (and created the oligarchs). Russia did what Harvard told them.
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C. Hunter
@c_hunter_r
In 1991, Poland's nominal GDP per capita was a 1/5 of Portugal's with inflation being 5 times higher and unemployment rate 3 times higher. By 2030, is it projected that Poland will have a higher nominal GDP per capita than Portugal and half the unemployment rate plus smaller debt
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Failsafe Machine
@lacaille8760
And they've resisted replacement migration. This is a GDP per capita chart, which is very susceptible to uneducated foreigners, see the Canada vs US chart
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JoseonOne
@JoseonOne
It’s much easier to grow starting from the bottom. As Poland experiences growth, they’ll find it increasingly difficult to grow at a similar pace. From a nominal GDP per capita basis, UK is nearly 2x. As Poland gets as richer, the PPP gap will diminish.
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Traders Crucible
@traderscrucible
Most importantly: they were ruthless in making sure they did not move to an oligarchy/gangster state. Both right and left had a hand in making Poland what it is today. What a success story
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Xavier Moss
@xav_moss
This was only possible due to the stabilising influence of the EU and the requirements and benefits of entering the single market. Balcerowicz was a great central banker but without the EU shock therapy would have been a disaster like in Russia.
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calling in the wilderness
@wolajacy
That's not true. Poland actually *didn't* implement shock therapy (confusingly, as Balcerowicz-Sachs plan was dubbed exactly that). Instead, it allowed market competition alongside state-owned enterprises, as well as removed rules that made it impossible for SOEs to bankrupt.
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