CHANGE: Poland will be wealthier than Britain by 2030 – it’s time we took notice.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Poles were the first former Soviet country to restore democracy, free markets and the rule of law. Yet they still had a mountain to climb. In 1989, Polish workers had a GDP per capita that was just a tenth of their German counterparts.
Three decades of steady growth has wrought a miracle. The economic disparities have narrowed dramatically. Adjusted for purchasing parity, GDP per head in Poland is now £28,200 compared with £35,000 in the UK, £34,200 in France and £39,800 in Germany. At its current trajectory rate, Poland will overtake the UK by 2030.
Since the millennium, Poland’s real GDP per capita has more than doubled; by contrast, GDP per capita in Britain, France and Germany grew between 15pc and 24pc over the same period.
The truth is that living standards in places like Warsaw or Wrocław are already comparable to those in Berlin, Paris and London.
Indeed, the quality of life for young families is undoubtedly higher.
Read the whole thing.
Related: Poland Becomes First NATO Country to Send Fighter Jets to Ukraine.
NATO has a defense spending target of 4% of each nation’s GDP. Most spend maybe half that, including Poland until recent years. Right now, Poland is doubling the size of its army to 300,000 men out of a population of 37 million. The German Bundeswehr has fewer than 185,000 active troops and a reserve so tiny it’s barely worthy of the name. That’s despite Germany having more than twice Poland’s population and a higher per capita income.
Germany talks about maybe hitting the 2% target… someday. Currently, Berlin spends an anemic 1.4% of GDP on defense, and they don’t spend it very well. Readiness in the German armed forces is considered virtually nonexistent.
Poland will soon have Europe’s largest tank force (except for Russia), including 1,000 South Korean K2 Black Panthers and 250 American-made M1 Abrams with plenty of upgrades.
Poland is something that so many Western nations (including our own) has forgotten how to be: A serious country. It’s probably going to take losing a major war, national default, or both to remind us how.