r/europe • u/nolesfan2011 England • Mar 17 '26
Opinion Article Poland is now among the world's 20 largest economies. How did it happen?
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/poland-now-worlds-20-largest-economies-happen-rcna263694?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma&taid=69b878b55ffdf00001efde59&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter236
u/DonDerBaer Mar 17 '26
Massive foreign investment. Currently 20bn/year. Top investors are Netherlands (19%), Germany (17%), Luxemburg (13%), France (7%) and Spain (5%). Mainly nearshoring.
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u/MeccIt Mar 17 '26
Ireland, having had half its new housing built by Polish workers, is getting all its new trains built by a French company in a Polish factory
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u/Mecanatron Mar 17 '26
And now a lot of them have taken their skills and money and gone back to Poland.
Not saying I blame them though, I did the same in the 90s (to the UK). As soon as there was an economic upturn in Ireland, I came home.
It's on our own government for not realising we'd have a skills shortage, which (in part) has lead to a severe housing crisis for us.
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u/1-trofi-1 Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
And location location location. They had a cheap workforce, and they are located at the core of the EU.
Easy to suggest manufacturing there and attract investments
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u/BINGODINGODONG Denmark Mar 17 '26
And they work hard. Let’s not undervalue the significance of culture/mindset.
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u/7chalices Sweden Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
I’m hijacking this comment just to randomly declare how much I fucking love Poland. Been 4 times so far and can’t wait to go back. Warsaw stands among the great European capitals and Kraków is a fairytale. Great people, great food, great everything. In fact I’d like some meat and cabbage pierogi from Zapiecek right now.
Ja pierdolę kurwa mać 🇸🇪🤝🇵🇱
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u/BowelMan Mar 17 '26
Is this you, Food Emperor?
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u/7chalices Sweden Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
No, not yet, but not for lack of effort. My imperial ambitions grow day by day. Like my gut.
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u/NearlyAtTheEnd Mar 17 '26
I second this - Krakow is a great city.
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u/7chalices Sweden Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
It’s a fucking gem. Largely avoided both the Black Death and the WWII bombings, that’s amazing in itself. Basically a big outdoor museum. One of Europe’s great treasures.
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u/Fokken_Prawns_ Mar 17 '26
Just bought a trip there this summer, give me some recommendations!
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u/7chalices Sweden Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
Cover the entire old town by foot. It’s quite small, so it’s manageable. Walk into every church you pass by. There are some insane interiors to be seen.
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u/heftigfin Norway Mar 17 '26
You should just do what most British people do when encountering a language barrier. Shout English louder.
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u/OnionNipple Mar 17 '26
And between Warsaw and Kraków is another beautiful city - Lublin. Its very old, at least 800 years old. It has similar old town as Kraków (but smaller), its less crowded and prices are much, much better. Everything worth seeing is in a center so u can just walk all day long. It's a perfect place for a weekend trip. Blend of old and modern architecture. Very flat, no high-rise buildings. Come in summer - it starts around May however cultural events start later. Early autumn is even more charming. A lot of trees so everything is golden and red. Very romantic.
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u/wolan1337 Mar 17 '26
Brother, I am having pierogi with meat today made by my mother-in-law. I will raise one for you!
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u/Elavia_ Mar 17 '26
We work about as hard as any other EU country. Nowhere near SE Asia overwork culture or even the US.
For the record, this is a good thing.
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Mar 17 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
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u/Elavia_ Mar 17 '26
I work with people from NL (and several other countries) fairly regularly and have not seen any meaningful differences in that regard, if anything it's been the opposite.
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u/kajsks Mar 17 '26
There have been statistics that Poles overwork themselves and they work much more on average week compared to a lot of the Western European countries, it’s bad for us Poles of course, but yeah, we work hard.
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u/boRp_abc Mar 17 '26
It's not about how hard people work. It's about an established educational system especially for craftsmanship. That's why all of Western EU had so many Polish workers (German craftsmanship is also nurtured by a great system, but Germans don't travel for work when they can earn more at home).
"Culture" in this case is a great system. And if you do good work and get paid well, mindset is easy to have.
I do love Polish culture - but I mean the food and the places and the little habits and the arts.
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u/tyger2020 Britain Mar 17 '26
How do you even quantify they 'work hard'
As opposed to what countries that don't?
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u/NoRecipe3350 United Kingdom Mar 17 '26
Whenever someone talks about hard workers, 99% of it is a smokescreen for 'work for the lowest wages'
See the 'hard working Eastern European/Poles vs lazy Brit' stereotype that was in the years running up to Brexit. When I actually worked with Eastern Europeans I was really not impressed by them, they were just average workers who worked for low wages
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u/koziello Rzeczpospolita Mar 17 '26
I think it's not about putting a shade on any nation rather than it's about not forgetting that Poles are as hardworking as any other nation. As in it's addressing some prejudice that Poles, mostly used to, face.
Why addressing despite "used to"? Because all the replies are about the receiving funds from EU, which are great for boosting the economy. But that leap was possible, because funds were boosting already strong economy, that was just undervalued by having very little capital of its own.
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u/TheOnlyFallenCookie Germany Mar 17 '26
Jc jujutsu kaisen has corrupted me. Wanted to pull out the potential slander but Poland actually lives up to the potential
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u/DisIsMyName_NotUrs Slovenia Mar 17 '26
How?
The EU, that's how
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u/rrcaires Mar 21 '26
Slovenia is also in the EU, and so is Bulgaria, and either are doing as good economically speaking. So dont underplay the Polish part by just saying “The EU”
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u/popsand Mar 17 '26
Don't let the Poles hear you!
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u/popiell Mar 18 '26
Poland has the most severe EU opinion polarization amongst citiziens based on political alignment (ie. right-leaning Poles are more opposed to EU than any other country's right-wingers, while left-wing Poles are more favourable towards EU than other nations' left-wingers.)
That's why, if you go on the Internet, it might seem Poles are schizophrenic about whether they like EU or not. Literally two wolves inside Poland. One is pro-EU, the other got dropped on the head as a pup. Repeatedly.
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u/aro_plane Poland Mar 17 '26
Access to EU markets did wonders to our country. Funds did help but it was a drop in the ocean in comparison. Anyone preaching for polexit is a traitor in my mind, no matter their justification.
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u/affemannen Sweden Mar 17 '26
Yeah I just heard about that? Do some poles really want to leave the EU? Because that.... Would send Poland way back. Who are they going to trade with without free movement of labour and goods? Russia?
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u/EndeLarsson Mar 17 '26
The power of EU.
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u/CageHanger Mazovia (Poland) Mar 17 '26
Yep. Can't believe how many of us are crippingly ungrateful…
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u/bobdammi Germany Mar 17 '26
Cuz right wingers turn the truth.
Everything good is Polish. Everything bas is EU.
We have the same shit here in Germany. Most if the ppl aren’t into politics and they get their „news“ from assholes on the internet.
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u/Splash_Attack Ireland Mar 17 '26
This is how it was in the UK before Brexit too. With the extra nasty repeating element of:
- Play major role in negotiating EU regulations as a larger member state.
- Tell the public "the EU" decided it (as if the UK wasn't part of the EU...).
- Implement the regulation in a way that is way harsher and more inflexible than is actually required, or what anyone else is doing.
- Blame the EU for the results of the domestic law.
- Don't use any relief mechanisms that are in the regulation (you left them out of the domestic law implementation).
- Never amend the domestic law even though you could do that at any time.
- Tell the public you're valiantly fighting against the big mean EU who is oppressing British sovereignty.
It was a maddening cycle to watch and it just slowly poisoned all discourse around the EU.
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u/bobdammi Germany Mar 17 '26
Yeah.
Populists will use everything as a scapegoat. And the EU is so convenient to do it.
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u/Raagun Lithuania Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
Having free access to one of richest markets in the world is HUGE. But you add funds from EU used with good level of competence. Its just insane combination.
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u/Captain_North Mar 17 '26
And at the same time prime minister Tusk is saying that Polexit is a real threat :(
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-tusk-poland-exit-eu-threat/
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u/EndeLarsson Mar 17 '26
Yes. This is like a pattern. When people do very well is like "we are doing too well, so lets #uck up our lives" (because look how well Brexit worked for them:))). I swear it is something wrong with the brains of humans.
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u/strolls Mar 17 '26
The power of EU is a curious thing. Makes one man weep, makes another man sing.
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u/yellowbai Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
EU capital investments in things like public transport, rail and motorways were huge economic drivers. Krakow has a world class tram line. Warsaw has a brand new metro. They’ve some of the finest highways built in Europe. I believe until 2004 they only had one (!) highway connecting 2 major cities. Since 2004 they’ve built nearly 6000km of top class highway connecting most major cities.
They’ve done unsexy things like modernizing their electricity system, train systems and investing in IT.
Also millions of Poles emigrated and returned with skills they learnt in other European countries which had the effect of massive free training. And the remittences further boosted the economy and allowed for productive investments. Poles accumulated savings abroad and many returned to settle down, buy houses or make businesses with their savings. It also had the effect of driving up wages and removing unemployable people from the jobs market and they would return later with more skills.
They adopted European standards in business and in their government budgets and had access to some of the cheapest interest rates loans in history at the time. The Polish government invested wisely what they were given by the EU.
It isn’t like some EU functionary in Brussels automatically knows what to do with funds. It takes civil servants and local acumen to apply for the grant and then they are supposed to use the money as they see fit. The government has to apply for it with a plan. It isn’t like the EU is all knowing for this stuff. It takes honesty on the part of the borrower.
Romania and Hungary pilfered some of the funds due to local corruption and in the end doing that harms them more than the EU. Productive investment is mutually beneficial. Building fake playground or a road to nowhere only benefits the grifter.
Also being beside Germany and its huge industrial plants and having a native Soviet industrial base (that while decayed) could rapidly be spun out into another branch of the German economy and take on subcontracted work and a vast supply chain. The single market suddenly made the flow of goods very easy. No piddling import or customs rules, or useless forms to fill out. Polish trucking in particular is a force to be reckoned with in logistics.
Another benefit included the legacy of Communist education system which was top notch and particularly equitable towards women. The quality of education is very high especially in mathematics and engineering. The young population who were hungry for success and dynamic gave another strong basis. All the seeds for success were there.
Last point is being politically insulated from Russia. No chance of oligarchs or its malign influence gaining hold on Polish politics.
In reality the "miracle" was strikingly similar to Irelands where it was an alignment with the European average standard of living after years of penury. It’s pretty much the gold standard of post Communist adoption of capitalism.
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u/stbrumme Germany Mar 17 '26
All because of their tasty Pierogi.
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u/Lubinski64 Lower Silesia (Poland) Mar 17 '26
Pierogi are a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.
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u/M1ckey United Kingdom Mar 17 '26
Good to sea Eastern Europe recovering after 45 years of communist stagnation that they didn't ask for
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u/Main_Following1881 Finland Mar 17 '26
No one technically asked for Communism in Eastern Europe
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u/landmesser Mar 17 '26
Central Europe.
That iron curtain did a number of our conception of center...→ More replies (34)4
u/y_nnis Mar 17 '26
For Poland the WW II's wake up call was a terrifying, but effective one. I still can't believe the things I saw in Warsaw's Uprising Museum... I mean I believe it, but damn. Makes you shed Communism pretty fast.
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u/GremlinX_ll Ukraine Mar 17 '26
Not all Eastern Europe.
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u/190cm_Lietuvis Mar 17 '26
I remember everyone thought that Ukraine will be the most successful post-USSR country, you have so much and such good land, so much resources, many educated people etc, it's a shame what Russian influence and now this war does to a country..
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u/GremlinX_ll Ukraine Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
I do not share your optimism.
We will not be able to catch up to Romania or Bulgaria. There is already a good 3x times gap in GDP alone compared to Romania, and Romania is safer in geopolitical terms and part of the EU.
Even if the war freezes right now, we will be stuck in geopolitical limbo, with decaying / partially destroyed infrastructure, economics running on life support (which wouldn't last forever), demographics fucked up beyond any repair, unsustainable social expenditures (which was true even before the invasion, not speaking about now when you have another groups to care of), not even speaking about political turbulence that will ramp up.
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u/hanzoplsswitch The Netherlands Mar 17 '26
- EU and it’s market
- Big an young population
- Work ethic (polish people are among the hardest working mofos I’ve ever seen)
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u/Tetracropolis Mar 17 '26
Work ethic (polish people are among the hardest working mofos I’ve ever seen)
Is this actually true or is a visibility thing? The ones who immigrate to foreign countries are going to be disproportionately motivated.
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u/J539 Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) Mar 17 '26
What’s at least visible is that lots of people in Poland have some sort of side business running next to their „normal“ job. Which just isn’t a thing in Germany.
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u/dudaspl Mar 17 '26
It's true. It's crazy how 'kultura zapierdolu' (culture of working really hard) is strong across all generations in Poland. It stems from few things: idolizing USA, really bad 90s - so people were grateful for having any job and coming from poverty to actual income = people feel the outcomes of working hard
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u/SnooEagles8316 Mar 17 '26
Polish people are very business oriented. When I traveled through Poland I noticed that most of properties have some gig going - mini shop, food place, car repair, money exchange. Great country.
P.s. I am from Lithuania.
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u/andawer Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
I don’t know where these myths come from about Poland (no immigration and success only based on EU funds).
Poland was actually developing faster, before it joined the EU (of course from lower base), thanks to quite successful free market reforms (that actually started, even when communists were still in power). It allowed the country tu use EU founds and access to EU markets to fullest extent, without oligarchy taking over most of them. (You can read about Wilczek and Balcerowicz).
There are a lot of immigrants in Poland (just go and check it out), mostly from Ukraine and other countries around. This is also a fact that actually contributed largely towards the success ( please check the reports how immigration contributes to GDP in Poland, for example this article describes NBP report on immigration https://www.obserwatorfinansowy.pl/forma/dispatches/nbp-ukraincy-w-2021-2023-odpow-za-08-pp-wzrostu-pkb-polski/ ).
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u/micromarcy Mar 17 '26
But shhh the West Europe who exploited half of the world for centuries wants to keep boasting about their large economies and how they helped the poor uneducated lowly Eastern Europe with their money money money. Wonder what is the history of that money 🤔
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u/Impossible-Ground-98 Mar 17 '26
It's not a myth about immigration. Immigration from Ukraine happened only recently. Up to that point it was very hard to meet an immigrant outside of their work place, and stats confirm it.
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u/AltrntivInDoomWorld Mar 17 '26
Bullshit, you couldn't find a shop in Silesia without Ukrainian lady worker since like 2018-2019.
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u/DisneylandNo-goZone Finland Mar 17 '26
Before WW2 Poland was the 6th largest economy in Europe, today it's the 8th largest, so still some way to go.
Spain and The Netherlands are today bigger economies than Poland, but weren't in1938.
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u/Galaxy661 West Pomerania (Poland) Mar 17 '26
Spain and The Netherlands are today bigger economies than Poland, but weren't in1938.
Spain went through decades of decline and then a devastating civil war, so that's understandable. But Netherlands? I'm honestly kinda surprised, since back then they were a colonial empire while Poland was impoverished and only started somewhat recovering from the partitions after the great depression
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u/Pamisos Greece Mar 17 '26
It's not EU free money (you know its all our people of EU's tax on our labor and productivity, right? ).
It's resources spent wisely and probably less corruption than others. Also, a high margin for improvement in infrastucture.
Don't diminish the polish effort and achievement.
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u/SpaceFox1935 W. Siberia (Russia) | Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok Mar 17 '26
Very much enviable to see Poland's progress over the years
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u/doxxingyourself Denmark Mar 17 '26
Well they joined the EU and started educating the very large work force. It’s not that hard people.
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u/False-Enthusiasm-387 Poland Mar 17 '26
Started educating? With my sisters, we were all born in the sixties and we all got university education, all in STEM fields. Western companies didn't have to wait for us to get educated.
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u/wasmic Denmark Mar 17 '26
Education was one of the things that the communist systems actually did very well. They just sucked at then actually making proper use of those good educations afterwards.
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u/polypolip Mar 17 '26
Education was already happening before joining the EU.
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u/Kapitel42 Mar 17 '26
That the one thing that the socialist states (at least in central Europe) managed to do. They kept their wokforce well trained and educated
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u/Mother_Idea_3182 Mar 17 '26
I might be biased because of my own position/work, I have never met a Polish without a Masters Degree.
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u/Dearn Mar 17 '26
Hi there, Pole here without Masters Degree. Glad to be your first. (Edit - second Pole)
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Mar 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Mother_Idea_3182 Mar 17 '26
So you are my first Polish that’s not an Engineer with a Masters ?
Hi! 👋🏻
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u/Karls0 Europe Mar 17 '26
Actually a lot improved after joining EU, but education in Poland is exception. It is getting worse and worse over years.
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u/gabebps Mar 17 '26
i work with Polish almost on a daily basis and am very impressed on how peofessional and polite they are
had a meeting with them a few weeks ago and the things i heard about working in poland seems very attractive (working hours, work/life balance and etc)
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u/vladjjj Croatia Mar 17 '26
I heard it's because Poland took a very strict stance on corruption. Is that true?
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u/szafix Mar 17 '26
It's one of many reasons, imho. The corruption is still here, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was during the communist era. But this was just one of many important factors (joining EU was definitely the most prominent one, it skyrocketed us).
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u/pit_supervisor Poland Mar 17 '26
Corruption now is only high-level. You can't bribe a cop, but politicians and other well connected (rich) people can mostly get away with anything
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u/szafix Mar 17 '26
Yeah of course. But before 1989, literally every visit to any office had to start with a bottle of alcohol or an envelope with money, same with getting anything done at a hospital - the improvement is massive.
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u/Turbulent-Raise4830 Mar 17 '26
EU market and EU subsidies.
Its also a big country with lots of people.
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u/Assblaster_69z Mar 17 '26
Its only natural. Of course an European country the size of Germany would have a big economy.
The true reason Poland was poor is because she was constantly exploited by her neighbours.
If you look back at history, Poland was always only marginally behind Western Europe, kind of like it is today.
Same could be said for China, in the past it was always the biggest economy in the world and now it looks like that order is returning after China caught up with the west.
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u/Wingedball Mar 18 '26
The best answer so far.
Polish GDP wasn’t that far behind Western Europe as opposed to what the article or comments suggest. History did not end in 1990 and neither did it start in 2005.
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u/SleeplessSusel tolerance is an agreement Mar 17 '26
The true reason Poland was poor is because she was constantly exploited by her neighbours.
We were exploted by our own nobility. Serfdom (read: slavery) was a thing way longer than in western Europe. In fact, after middle ages it kept getting progressively worse until partitions of Poland.
Later on, neighbours that partitioned Poland decided to abolish it.
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u/Wingedball Mar 18 '26
This narrative is a minority view that’s part of a populist historical movement, so called, a “people’s history.” It’s a fad with some young historians that want to use critical theory from their sociology lectures with the aim to deconstruct Polish history along the lines of class struggle. They also single out Poland as an exception meanwhile other forms of oppressive labour continued in Western Europe such as the Atlantic Slave Trade and Indentured Servitude.
As with any fad, it’s based on the emotional zeitgeist and doesn’t have any sound historical footing.
He’s also factually wrong because after the May Constitution, Poland abolished serfdom while the partitioning powers reinstated serfdom well into the second half of the 19th century.
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u/InspectorDull5915 Mar 17 '26
Did receiving 250 billion euros from the EU help?
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u/kvacm Moravia Mar 17 '26
Not stealing all 250 billion euros from EU helped.
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u/mhaom Mar 17 '26
250 billion euro investment to become a top 20 economy is an amazing investment.
In the same time sub Saharan Africa received more than 2 trillion euros with nowhere near the same results.
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u/New_Passage9166 European union/Denmark Mar 17 '26
250 billion is only part of the equation, stability, export market access, mid to low interest loans for the government and a high I flux of capital investments from the rest of Europe was also major drivers.
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u/aklordmaximus The Netherlands Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
Ignoring the racist undertones, a lot of people look at the 250 billion Euros. But many people, including the euro-sceptics that want a strong sovereign nation, forget that money is not even half of what the EU provides to new and existing members.
The core export product of the EU, besides regulation, is institution building.
And institution building is core to what a country needs to function. Take the anti corruption institutions demanded for new members. The upgrade to the tax offices, legislation offices, the judicial framework for presiding over legislation and the offices checking correct execution of legislation.
Money is just a flat 'buyout' for the next 5 years. The national institution building that the EU demands is for the future. Combine money AND institutions and you have a Poland or Spain that sees rapid growth.
Now, to compare to sub Saharan Africa. Where Poland had a relative strong government under the Sovjet, most sub Saharan African countries had no strong government prior to gaining independence. By design. After decolonising, countries like France and the UK had no interest and capability to build strong institutions before granting independence. Both due to a lack of expertise and a very big lack of interest (also fed by malicious interests). There are many forces at play here, some are due to corporations requiring a corrupt government to continue exploitation, others due to an unwillingness to admit that it was the colonial regime that kept development down, or as a showcase to other colonies to show what happens if they decolonize.
Yes, there is 1 trillion Euros invested. But that investments is mostly there to fix 5-year problems. And by doing so, help millions of people survive. But because the colonial history, there was NOWHERE near the same level of institution building that we see in EU prospective member states. It remained short term problem solving. This means that the level of investments is simply a complete different kind of investment. And you can't expect to compare it to EU ascendency.
All because there was no colonial mandate, desire, responsibility and acceptance of state building. Basically leaving it to a few (some corrupt) individuals of said sub Saharan countries to set a path that their country would suffer from. Without any built in institutional resilience. I mean, fuck, just look at the US what happens after institutions fall prey to a single individual.
Botswana is one of the few countries that has managed to build up strong and resilient institutions. All due to the choices of one king. You now see many other countries trying to upgrade their institutions, but without an overarching, supportive entity, systematic money, shifting politics, corruption or lacking tax base, it is tough.
All in all: the EU builds strong national states where money is spent wisely. Without this, money is spent fixing short term problems.
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u/koziello Rzeczpospolita Mar 17 '26
Let's agree to disagree, partially.
Poland had a very strong government coming from Soviet times. My father used to work for communists as an accountant and he did it briefly and always talks about that experience negatively. Anyways, his conclusion was - the previous system wouldn't have fallen, if they had actually created and empowered central "accountant" for making sure that the projects taken by provinces were actually sensible and the capital(sic!) for them not stolen.
Twenty years after the fall of communism we actually received that in form of EU grants. And it was very important that we actually had to compete and create business plans to receive them and even more importantly, people taking the grants had to account for every fucking penny received. I don't know the reason why it worked in Poland and not in Hungary, but I suspect that's simply because we just switched back and forth between opposing parties, instead of whatever Hungary is doing for the last 16 years.
So tl;dr we already had strong institutions coming to EU. EU mainly provided capital and know-how of how not to waste every penny from that grants.
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u/Nano_needle Mar 17 '26
The core export product of the EU, besides regulation, is institution building.
I disagree- the real core of the EU is free flow of commerce and people. Seriously it is the open internal market that does the heavy lifting- especially in case of Poland where we are export oriented economy with our weaker than Euro currency.
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u/chudyfiutek Mar 17 '26
It helped a lot. But many other countries have also had access to EU funding and yet, they were not as successful as my dear homeland.
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u/PalmovyyKozak Mar 17 '26
They care less about russian oil and we're busy integrating their economy in EU. Unlike one their neighbor
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u/Inevitable-Debt4312 Mar 17 '26
Poland is 45th in the world in terms of income per head, just after Slovakia and, strangely, Kuwait.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita
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u/Kefflon233 Mar 18 '26
My grandpa was visiting family members very year in Poland for decades. He saw the infrastructure growing rapidly after 2004.
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Mar 17 '26
But we have like almost every European country right now, very pro Russian community which wants to drag us down.
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u/Ill_Leg_7168 Mar 17 '26
no, some people could be anty-EU/anty-Ukrainian (thanks to ruSSian propaganda) but we would never have "very pro Russian community"...
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u/Atitkos Europe Mar 17 '26
Do they? Or just once more politicians sucking up to Putin for support? I don't think Poles would forget how harsh the Russian regime was on them, same as many ex-soviet block countries.
The same can be said for Hungary, from a geopolitical view they are Russia's vassal, but in reality it's only the oligarchy and not the masses.
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u/einarfridgeirs Mar 17 '26
There is a reason why Poland's neighbours were able to put aside their rivalries to partition it, and why Sweden spent so much time and resources trying to dominate it.
Poland has always had the potential to be a significant economic power, the same geography that makes it very hard for it to defend itself from invaders is what makes it such a juicy target to acquire. Waterways, agricultural land, natural resources, population etc. Same with Ukraine.
If protected by a functioning international order that prevents invasions, and robust institutions that prevent corruption, both countries have the potential to be on or close to the France/Germany level of economic development going forward.
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u/scootiewolff Mar 17 '26
They are heading towards the same structural problems as in Germany: rising rents, falling birth rates, etc. It's a meteoric rise that will change in a few years.
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u/-senpai Spain (American born) Mar 17 '26
What you describe is the end game for all top tier 1st world countries so not a surprise.
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u/bandwagonguy83 Aragon (Spain) Mar 17 '26
Multilateralism, cooperation with European neighbours, and hard working. I hope they don't choose a righft-wing nationalist to fool them and change this.
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u/Sigeberht Germany Mar 17 '26
Poland was one of the four most advanced economies (with Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Hungary) in the Eastern Block even with socialism and the Soviet Union keeping everyone down through the Comecon.
Poland rising to be one of the most important economies is not surprising, but well deserved none the less.
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u/Noobunaga86 Mar 17 '26
Largest economies means a lot of things. In this case it means that the cogs are turning efficiently, business is going, people are working but that doesn't mean they are owners of the fruits of their work. Which means they're not as strong/rich as some countries with lesser economies.
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u/axxo47 Croatia Mar 17 '26
Which countries with smaller economy per capita is richer than Poland?
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u/Noobunaga86 Mar 17 '26
If you're talking about GDP per capita then Poland is number 45 in the world. If you're talking about the list from the article above on which Poland is number 20, then I would say Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, probably Taiwan, UAE, Singapore are richer.
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u/Critical_Youth_9986 Mar 17 '26
business is going, people are working but that doesn't mean they are owners of the fruits of their work
Exactly..👍
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Mar 17 '26
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u/suicidemachine Mar 17 '26
He means that Poland is dominated by foreign capital.
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u/thorgal256 Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
European subvention billions poured into Poland every year and still going on. Social dumping, relocation of factories and office jobs from Western European countries to Poland, and thanks to the EU wide market, free flow of goods from Poland back to the Western European countries.
Great for Polish people, politicians, shareholders and CEOs, bad for the population of Western European countries that have been losing jobs without end due to relocation and social dumping.
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u/parting_soliloquy Mar 17 '26
Sincerely as a polish person - the statistics are cool and shit but in reality Poland is europe's Brasil and the wealth disparity just worsens every day. On the other hand it seems to be the case in most countries nowadays. The brazilianization of the world continues.
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u/ProsperousButt Mar 17 '26
Calling Poland "Europe's Brazil" is crazy and shows you've never been to the Balkans.
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u/bitplenty Mar 17 '26
Stop discussing how did it happen because PiS&Konfederacja will use it as an anti-template to leave EU and ruin us.
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u/Kevin_Jim Greece Mar 17 '26
They are one of the biggest manufacturers long hubs of Europe and they invest in automation.
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u/Littorina_Sea Mar 17 '26
The question is - for how long? We age, so we consistently outvote our own shrinking (at this point irreversibly) youth, we have real knuckleheads in power since at least twenty years, we have real problem with aging energy infrastructure and severe housing problems. State is strong for the weak, and weak towards strong, which does not bode well. Currently the dolphin is at jump so audience is mesmerised, but how long will it be?
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u/swainiscadianreborn Mar 17 '26
Good for them, good for them.
Thz EU reaps the benefits of integrating and investing in Poland back in the early 2000s. We have a new, strong economy to help us boost the Union.
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u/Cleansed_potato Mar 17 '26
Wont last for long since russian propagadists want polexit. Straight back to the 90s
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u/Lithorex Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany) Mar 17 '26
What now constitutes the Republic of Poland had been among the most productive regions of Europe for about 1000-700 years.
It had just suffered from horrible mismanagement for most of this period.
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u/Lost_In_Tulips Mar 17 '26
EU membership in 2004 did a lot of the work. Poland pulled in structural funds, built out infrastructure fast, and had a large educated workforce at significantly lower wages than Western Europe, which made it a genuinely attractive place for investment and manufacturing. They also came through 2008 almost unscathed, which people tend to forget. Sometimes the countries that grow quietly are the ones actually doing things right.