ʙᴇʀᴛᴏś ✨🇵🇱🇪🇺

I lived in Austria and Poland, and one question has been bugging me: If Austria is considered a "rich" country, why Poland feels so much more advanced and economically developed? Recently, I got the answer – the system is just structured this way. Austria has high taxes and a social security system that favors employees over entrepreneurs. I felt it myself – when I was paid €500/day on my freelance contract, half would go to the state. So the leftover €250 didn't feel like a big deal. I took more time off and didn't care about work too much. The same goes for other businesses. Shops would have weird opening hours, ignore service quality, and not care about getting more clients. It just doesn't pay off in Austria to have a profitable business. Meanwhile, Poland has lower taxes - 9% for companies, and 19% for individual proprietors. Poland promotes business, and you get a lot of new places opening, high service quality, and even better ad creatives on the street. This doesn't mean Poland is better than Austria. It just means that these countries are fit for two different purposes. You are already rich and want to raise a family with kids - go to Austria. You will get good infrastructure, bike lanes, good schools, and safe streets that the struggling local businesses paid for with their money. You want to move fast, make money, and grow your biz – go to Poland. You will get more run-down and stressful cities, but insane service sector, low taxes, and upbeat vibe – which is the most important when you are young and ambitious.

“How did the UK go from conquering the world to getting left behind by literal Poland?” So sad.

Illiberal-populist governments in the Visegrád Four, 2022 versus 2026.

Hindistan’da bir berberin yalnızca 0.30 dolara (yaklaşık 10 TL) tıraş öncesi saç ve el yıkama hizmeti sunduğu iddiası dikkat çekti. Uygun fiyatıyla müşterilerin ilgisini çeken bu uygulama, sosyal medyada gündem oldu.

Each time I visit Poland, I am more and more impressed by how it has changed. Poland suffered for four decades under socialist poverty. Today, with the free market and capitalism, it’s a different country. Socialism is not the solution for anything, it’s the source of misery.

Rozumie pan redaktor, czy sobie inaczej pogadamy?