Poland: From Socialism to Prosperity: Review

 

Poland’s Economic Turnaround and the Importance of Being Rich

I watched an interesting documentary on the growth of Poland from the 70s to the 2020’s. Based on the research of Dr. Rainer Zitelmann “Poland: From Socialism to Prosperity” is a short encapsulation of the country’s economic growth over the last 70 plus years.

A decimated place after World War II, Poland fell under the sway of the USSR. Poland’s Soviet style planned economy crushed all dissent from citizens during the 1970’s. Workers, fed up with price increases on basic foods (eggs, bread) rioted against the ruling parties. After years of long lines for consumer goods, and starvation wages they tried a different approach.

In the 1970s they borrowed from the West to get their industries going again. This worked for a while, an influx of money provides citizens with a chance to purchase goods and services not available before. Now you could actually buy shoes in the size and color you prefer, instead of grabbing whatever remains. Trade opened up access that wasn’t there before.

Hyperinflation and Unemployment

But loaned money needs to be repaid and Poland struggled to keep up at first. Borrowing isn’t actually a reform anyway. Underlying restrictions on business, price controls and fake unemployment numbers remain. Everyone in a socialist country is “employed” after all. Only after 1988 did the real reforms begin. But even here, only after union workers used strikes to protest wages and living conditions. The ration card system was finally done and trade flourished for the first time. But the hyperinflation made everything very expensive. Since 1970 the foreign debt grew from 1 billion dollars to 40 billion in 20 years. First they agreed on a debt reduction deal with Western creditors. Then the fake 0% unemployment numbers became the real 15% to 20% unemployment numbers.

By the early 2000s, ownership in consumer goods like TV’s and cars went up exponentially. The turnaround was dramatic. The poorest country in Europe had experienced the fasted growth. Inflation went from over 500% to around 7% by the end of the 1990s.

Attitudes on Money

Zitelmann ends his documentary with a survey on attitudes within the country toward wealth. In Poland 49% of respondents believe it’s “really important” to become rich. This puts it in the same league as Asian countries where nearly 60% answered the same way. In the US, and the rest of Europe, only 28% agreed. This might be a little misleading, however. The word “rich” can mean a lot of things. For all of my life, America has been a prosperous and free country. Certainly we have crime, poverty and unemployment. But relative to Poland in the 70’s, and much of the developing world, it’s a paradise. The fact is we’ve always been “rich”. 

The rest of the world has caught up, mostly, since the 1990s in economic freedom and wealth creation. 

Left Populism

Populism is on the rise in America because of the meaning of the word rich. It looks different on the right and left however. The left-wing Marxists will always hate capitalism because they can’t control who becomes rich. When consumers make their own decisions about spending it deprives Marxists of their power. The Marxist wants to squeeze the economy like an orange and drink the juice but has no concern with growing more oranges. They’re fine with rich people who do their bidding. Do you own an airline, set your prices according to their arbitrary fees. Do you own a professional football team, make sure your hiring and advertising reflects DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) check boxes. Central planning looks a little different in America because the cultural Marxists demand institutional compliance at every level.

Right Populism

On the right, any sort of anti-rich sentiment is a reaction to the elites destroying the middle class. I don’t mean rich people that make a money and grow business. Nor do I mean super wealthy playboys with yachts and pricey real estate. The resentment is for the titans like Bill Gates who push untested vaccines and make money from the stock price. Or, those who use lawfare against regular people who can’t afford to defend themselves in court. It’s a matter of power and control. When a country is managed by oligarchs (essentially) the way America is, it destroys the middle class and puts growth out of reach for too many. I’ve always been a free market guy, but we’ve been sold a lie about what that is.

Look behind the scenes and you’ll see the government manipulating outcomes everywhere. Twitter was full of FBI plants that shut down accounts, critical of official policies on Covid to the Russia collusion hoax. Twitter was supposedly a private company.   

Politics and Corruption

On a political level, the wealthy business class used to vote with Republicans and defend their own interests. Today, they bend the knee to the woke crowd. A few years ago Senator Tom Cotton had an exchange with the CEO of Kroger, Rodney McMullen at a Senate hearing. McMullen wanted help for a merger with Albertsons. Cotton’s instruction is brilliant, you fired Christians who worked for you because they didn’t want to wear the gay rainbow? Republicans traditionally help businesses remove red tape. But their voters, the traditional values crowd, aren’t getting equal treatment from the ownership class. We’re told to comply or be fired, call people by their pronouns.  Senator Cotton was appropriately dismissive “I’m sorry this is happening to you, best of luck”.

Another view of rich is the spiritually corrupting side. Too many people put “getting rich” at the top of their importance list, without understanding the trade-offs. They pursue wealth at the expense of family, friends and moral conviction. A country full of people that worship money will squeeze out morality and devalue life. Why does this sound familiar? It’s the America of today.

Conclusion

So yes, wealth is good and prosperity is beneficial for all. But we have to get the order right. Put God first, free up the economy and watch Him bless it. Over 70% of citizens in Poland consider themselves Catholic. That puts it among the most Christian countries in the world. It’s at least an indicator that they place high importance on traditional values. Religious participation has slipped in recent years. Catholics made up over 87% of the population in 2011. Hopefully their idea of rich won’t push out morality like it has in the US. God bless the Poles, may they keep Him at the center of daily life. And God bless the USA, may we regain an ordered vision of money and return to our heritage of true economic freedom.