[lbo-talk] GDP per capita/Dougs comments

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Fri Jun 25 06:21:13 PDT 2004


Chris: Woj, I'm curious -- does Poland suffer from the same generational poverty as Russia? (Savings got wiped out, pensions basically don't exist.) Or did Warsaw manage things better?

WS:

I think it is combination of social class and location, rather than generation. My parents are retirees and they are doing OK, but only because my dad was a member of the executive class in a major industry and had a relatively high salary when he retired. OTOH, a lot of young people are unemployed - unemployment rate in Poland is about 20% (sic!). As a rule of thumb - the farther from major urban center and the more blue collar - the higher the unemployment and distress rates. I also think that Russia would not be that much different if it did not shed off the vast parts of central Asia which received substantial subsidies under the Soviet system and then tumbled into dire poverty after the so-called "fall of Communism."

Wojtek



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