I see that a lot of people on this forum love to look at our wallets and judge our wealth. Well, so maybe i will tell my story. I didn't even finish high school. I work in Wrocław as an operator of welding machine in Polish company hiring 30 people. We produce mechanical and optical parts, mainly for industrial customers from the West. I earn after 5 years of work up to 1000 euro net. My salary after working 160 hours is 3200 zł net (800 euro). It is enough for me to work in 3 saturdays to earn much more than 1000 euro. I was beginning from 1700 zł 5 years ago. My friends in warehouse take usually 1900-2200 zł netto (circa 500 euro).
I worked in Sweden on ships for almost 3 years. It was enough for me to save enough money to buy here my own 1 room apartment not far away from the center of the city. Property prices are averagely 5x lower here than in Western countries. It is much easier for a Pole to move out to the UK, work even for 8 GBP / hour, live in the same apartment with many friends (to pay possibly not much for rent) and it is pretty possible to save enough money to buy beautiful new 2 room apartment in Poland after 5 years of work. Most of my friends do it to avoid manipulating themselves into loan banks.
I earn averagly 3500 zł, i spend on electricity, water, trashbin, gas and internet circa 300 zł / month. If i wanted to save money on food, i could eat everyday in bar near my workplace - 10 zł for whole plate of potato, meat and salad. If i was really poor, i could eat in bar mleczny and pay for the same 7 zł. If i really wanted to save money - buying cheap food and eating in cheap restaurants - i could save every month at least 2000 zł. But i save only 1000 zł because i like good and expensive (on Polish standards) food in restaurant in the center of the city
I had a car but crushed it while driving drunk, they took away my driver licence, hence i take taxi very often. Circa 30 zł for 12 km from my workplace to home.
Show me a physical worker in the West without even high school education who can afford eating in restaurants in the center of the city almost everyday and take taxi to come back to home, please
![[Image: wink.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/wink.gif)
Now story of my family. My mommy is a cleaner, my daddy works as a "stróż" (nightwatch) in university. My mommy earns 1600 zł net, my daddy earns over 2000 zł net (because he has big "staż pracy" - he worked a lot of years and accordingly to law he is given bonus raisings - his job is public, not private). But it doesn't really matter because they have over 400.000 zł of debt. They were taking a lot of loans in 90s, then one of them lost job and they took new loans to pay old ones - and that's how they fell into spiral of debt. Komornik (debtcollector) takes away their salaries - but he can't take all - he must leave them minimal salary on bank account (1300 zł / person). My mom works also "na czarno" (outside tax sphere) to fool komornik and earn money on side. They don't have their own apartment, they were given "mieszkanie komunalne" from city. Their rent is silly low, like 300 zł. City does fixing for free if something is broken. This new apartment that they were given looks better than my apartment that i bought
![[Image: biggrin.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
Komornik (debtcollector) can't take away this apratment from them because apartment is officially a property of the city. They buy things like new TV sets, refigerators on my surname - so officially everything they have in apartment is my property. That's why komornik can kiss their ass. Two minimal salaries are enough for them to live normally and they even spend vacations in Croatia once a year.
Of course, we have a lot of poor people in the country: bums, alcoholics, homeless. But i don't think that their number per capita is much bigger than in the West. I also know that we have regions in the country with high unemployment that are fucked up - for example Silesia that suffers from destruction of mine-industry. But generally, i wouldn't really say that Poland is _much poorer_ than the West. If you take into consideration cost of life, prices, taxes, cheap property and so on and so on, differences in purchase power ain't so big anymore and they used to be 10 or 20 years ago.
http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/com...ty2=London
