Poland is now among the 20 largest economies. How it happened

Re:Poland is now among the 20 largest economies. How it happ... by scyzoryk_xyz on Friday May 08, 2026 @01:51PM (#48066483)

As a Polish millenial the perspective is a rollercoaster. In one way the transformation of absolutely everything over and over and over is mind blowing in a positive way. OTOH we're also all paranoid running on what feels like a never ending hamster wheel of inflation, raises and mortgages. And then Gen-Z's feel straight get up locked out of everything.

We visit western European countries and it's like WTF it's cheaper here?

The multi-generational spread is wild - my boss remembers being raised in 80's scarcity culture verging on 2-3rd world hunger. But our entry level employees are running around demanding everyone to be up to date with everything they see and hear in these little glowing rectangles. It's like two separate progressions have been superimposed on top of each other.

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Re:Poland is now among the 20 largest economies. How it happ... by daliusd on Friday May 08, 2026 @02:53PM (#48067205)

Same story in Lithuania

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Re:Poland is now among the 20 largest economies. How it happ... by sam_lowry_ on Friday May 08, 2026 @04:23PM (#48068311)

Also economic inequality is quite differently shaped across ages

People over 60 are poor, 40..60 are a mixed bag, 20..40 are struggling to keep up.

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Re:Poland is now among the 20 largest economies. How it happ... by pseudohadamard on Saturday May 09, 2026 @12:18AM (#48071788)

The Baltic states are a pretty odd mix, Estonia could be any western European country while Latvia next door still feels in places like the Red Army has only just pulled out. It was quite a jolt going from one to the other.

Mind you since we'd started from Russia both of them looked pretty good in comparison, that place was dire.

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Re:Poland is now among the 20 largest economies. How it happ... by boogierobis on Monday May 11, 2026 @07:57AM (#48093867)

Dude has not been to Narva lol

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Re:Poland is now among the 20 largest economies. How it happ... by dhosek on Friday May 08, 2026 @05:51PM (#48069216)

Just as a quick note, the “second world” would have been the Eastern Bloc countries, so by definition, living in Poland in the 80s would have been 2nd-world conditions.

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Re:Poland is now among the 20 largest economies. How it happ... by disgruntledphd2 on Saturday May 09, 2026 @10:35AM (#48075323)

Thank you! Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who remembers this. For example, Ireland was a third world country because (theoretically) we were non aligned.

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Re:Poland is now among the 20 largest economies. How it happ... by trhway on Friday May 08, 2026 @06:02PM (#48069332)

>We visit western European countries and it's like WTF it's cheaper here?

Warsaw is the only place in Europe where a casual search out of curiosity brought 15-20K euro/month developer positions.

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Re:Poland is now among the 20 largest economies. How it happ... by mjtk on Friday May 08, 2026 @08:45PM (#48070601)

Vibecession at country scale. Seems like growth feels like instability for many citizens.

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