That hurt. I was brought up as a Pole in the UK, and returning to my fatherland was a form of destiny shaped by my upbringing - Polish school on Saturday mornings, Polish scouts on Saturday afternoons, Polish church on Sunday. I am here by choice, not by default. I won't have the beton Jarka element label me as unpatriotic; I want what I see is best for my country.
A modern, normal country. One where decent citizens can go about their daily, law-abiding lives, working in fulfilling jobs, paying taxes, trusting one another, trusting the Polish state, trusting their neighbours, employers, tax authorities and police. A country with decent universities, turning out graduates that are equipped for the labour market of tomorrow. Graduates that don't have to flee to foreign universities to get decent research fellowships. A country when research and development spend per capita is as high as it is in Scandinavia, the US or Japan. A country not dependent on jobs on low-cost manufacturing, but on high-value added high-tech industries and professional services.
Poland does have the people. I never cease to be amazed at the quality of young people - hard working, intelligent, well-read, highly-motivated; yet the country - the state - can't seem to get itself organised in such a way as to harness that energy to the full. Too many talented Poles leave Poland to make a career in foreign universities, foreign companies in foreign countries.
Year by year, Poland is moving away from joke-country status. Since we moved to Poland, it has become a member of NATO, the European Union, the OECD club of rich countries. Since 2004, Poland's GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power parity has risen from 54% of the EU average to 61%, and climbing fast. In 2003, Poland's economy was seven times smaller than the UK's. Today, it's only four-and-half times smaller. I want Poland to have a strong economy. For that to happen, the economy needs to be run by people who know about the economy. Here, I mistrust PO less than PiS. And that's what it boils down to.
I want a country of entrepreneurs, not bureaucrats. Poland does have one of the highest percentages of workforce employed in micro-businesses (employing one to nine employees) in the EU. That's basically one big ZUS dodge. The average Polish micro-business employs 1.3 people. The "entrepreneur" (read: 'self-employed person for tax reasons') and his wife doing the books one third full-time equivalent. Because it's too damned difficult for a sole trader to do it himself. The average British micro-business employs 3.7 people. That's healthier. Go up to the small firm level. Only 12% of the Polish workforce is employed in small businesses (10 to 49 employees). This is the lowest level in the EU. So medium- and large-size firms can go about their business without feeling the nip of competition at their heels - and can get away with charging higher prices and offering worse service than in the UK.
This needs reform.
In the UK, to be self-employed, you merely fill in two sides of a form (CWF-1) and send it to your local tax office. And you pay tax once a year. In Poland, you go through inordinately more bureaucracy to be able to call yourself a jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza. In England, if you wish to tune pianos, trim decorative hedges, teach ballroom dancing or renovate classic cars, you just get on and do it and pay the taxman annually. In Poland, the citizen is not simply allowed to go out and earn his or her way - he or she must apply to the state for permission to do so, pay tax and ZUS and VAT monthly, and be subject to such rigorous supervision as to put off all but the hardiest souls. (In the UK, you are only obliged to pay VAT if your earnings exceed £70,000).
Put it another way; if Poland is to really take off as a country, it needs to make it much easier for people to start working for themselves, to employ other people; it must be easier to pay taxes.
Where's the political appetite for reform? Looking at the economic programme of the presidential candidates, I could only see real economic reformist zeal in Janusz Korwin-Mikke (slightly nutty party) and Andrzej Olechowski. Both marginal candidates without any significant party support.
As for two remaining candidates, the least-worst option is Bronisław Komorowski. Plodding and steady rather than an energetic driver for change, I feel he won't get in the way. I don't get that feeling about his opponent.
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I listened today to the court judgement regarding Jarosław Kaczyński's claim that Komorowski was for the privatisation of Hospitals/ the NHS. Unfortunately, it was clear from the 'reasoning' given for their verdict (he was only for legislation that allowed local councils to chose), that it is not only a lie that Komorowski is for privatisation, but it is also a lie that he is against it.
"A modern, normal country. One where decent citizens can go about their daily, law-abiding lives, working in fulfilling jobs, paying taxes, trusting one another, trusting the Polish state, trusting their neighbours, employers, tax authorities and police."
Ahem, sorry, just a bit of phlegm in the throat there.
To quote Captain Fantastic, Happy Talk:
"You've got to have a dream,
If you don't have a dream:
How you gonna have a dream come true?"
@ Sigismundo -
You cannot deny that things in Poland are generally better than they were either in 1997 or 2003. Despite politicians, I'd argue, rather than because of them. Polish society is getting on with it; EU institutions (and money) is generally civilising the country.
Things will get better.
Michał, you once asked in one of your blogs whether you were too close to the front with respect to business etc - (can't remember how you put it exactly) - there's a report in rp today http://www.rp.pl/artykul/498248.html entitled 'Once again Poland has little to say' with respect to the formation of the EU's diplomatic and 'foreign office'. Any chance you could comment on these developments. I would be most interested to hear your take on these developments given Buzek's trumpeting of Poland's membership of the EU as a way of us having more democracy (you know my sceptical take on this of course, as I see it as a veiled way of saying that Poland will be in the minority - like we need more democracy in the form of others telling Poland what to do because there are mmore of 'them' - like we don't have enough democracy in our own country already)?
I used to watch CNBC Europe routinely in the morning when I had it: for my mind the best TV programme I have ever seen. There was a regular English commentator who said something like: "What people don't understand is that politicians [in a democratic country] have virtually no control over the country. They are completely controlled by the economy, the general attitudes of the people and outside events." A few minutes later he then said "the worst decision the politicians [in England] made was to join the EU". A fascinating, apparently schizophrenic view for which the coherence would be complicated to explain. However, it is a quite normal view about the power of politicians held by many people, though rarely put so succinctly.
In Poland, I very strongly side with the powerless side of the argument. The problem is not the bureaucratic difficulty of growing small companies. It is the cultural perspective of businesses in which being self employed itself is the only objective and complete control of the business is part of the ethos. Few people want to create a strong growing business: employing people itself creates problems. Having a manager to help run the business is often unacceptable lack of control: I was amazed that in the middle of the summer season, shops in Nowy Świat in Warsaw closed when the owner went on holiday. A small business is a life-style choice, not a business venture. People are so well adjusted to legal requirements that they have no problem dealing with them, even if they do moan. (The small business Federation in the UK actually complained about the government bringing in too many changes too often when it implemented a programme to achieve what the Federation said it wanted.) Reducing the burdens is, I presume, a good thing, but it is unlikely to change very much. Indeed it is arguable that it would be better in the short term if there was some way of making harder to open your own business and easier to develop existing ones.
I'm also fascinated by your comment about the EU civilising the country. There have been, and still are, EU and Norwegian projects supporting the development of civilisation in Poland. The Objective of improving civilisation in Poland up to EU standards has been written into EU Structural and Cohesion Funds programmes. When I asked what this meant, I was first told "Well... You know." "Sorry", I replied, "I have no idea what it means." I then got some sort of vague explanation of how bad Poland was and that people needed to improve - still baffled - and then given an example of a programme dealing with development of democracy by telling people how it works: would I like to take part? After England, Poland is a highly effective democracy in which the views of a very range of people are fully reflected by its politicians. I could say how brilliant this element of civilisation is in Poland, but I didn't think I would be able to take part in correcting this.
After living in London, Poland is already extremely civilised. You want a "modern, normal country. One where decent citizens can go about their daily, law-abiding lives, working in fulfilling jobs, paying taxes, trusting one another, trusting the state, trusting their neighbours, employers, tax authorities and police". Poland is much closer to this. The only one I'm not sure about is 'paying taxes', but that is only because the whole control apparatus in the UK is much tougher than in Poland - Big Brother and all that.
Fully agree with you Michael! As a self-employed person I can't imagine living without my accountant:/
But I don't believe PO will change anything:(
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