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> In the East, meanwhile, the elites are shamed to silence, for they’re complicit in a population collapse of wartime scale. Croatia has lost almost a quarter o
by mmarq 5y ago
> In the East, meanwhile, the elites are shamed to silence, for they’re complicit in a population collapse of wartime scale. Croatia has lost almost a quarter of its people (an existential meltdown, one premier dared to moan). Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic three of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia have seen a fifth of workers go. Poland has lost over a tenth.
Are we saying that, say, the Polish state owns the Poles and if the latter go abroad they are stolen goods?
The rest of the article seems to assume that Poland would be better off outside of the German value chain, which borders insanity.
- chuckee 5y ago> Are we saying that, say, the Polish state owns the Poles and if the latter go abroad they are stolen goods? Large amounts of educated (at taxpayer expense) people leaving a country is a problem, regardless of any claims of ownership. Or claims of duty to their country. But it is easier to argue that people aren't owned by their country (a claim present only in your rhetorical question, and absent from the article), than to argue that they have no duty towards it and their fellow countrymen. > The rest of the article seems to assume that Poland would be better off outside of the German value chain, which borders insanity. Does it? It seems to me it's pointing out the ways in which Eastern Europe is being exploited, and the claim that they'd be better off "outside the German value chain" is again purely your invention. Should they not complain until the situation is so bad they'd be worse off as an isolated economy competing alone against giant colluding countries and unions of countries? It's telling the only criticism you have is not for things the article says, but for what it seems to say or imply.
- mensetmanusman 5y agoNot own, but since they invested billions into education that has seen a net negative return, there is reason to fret a downward spiral unless those that benefit rebalance the load.
- mmarq 5y agoYes, the local political class and elites should take responsibility and act so that people stop expatriating, if that’s really what they want. What the article suggests is that we blame the foreigner, ie the German and the Briton, because they allow educated Poles and Italians to earn a decent salary. Besides, in Poland we are starting to see a reversal, as the country keeps growing and becoming richer, net migration has become positive. So one may argue that Western Europe, while benefiting from the Polish workforce it imported, also acted as a relief valve for Polish unemployment, while the country was catching up with the west.