For a country that has been repeatedly trampled by giants on either side of it, running over its territory to get at each other, it’s about time Poland got some good news – and boy this is really good news:
On its current path, Poland is on track to become wealthier than Britain by 2030 thanks to a post-communist economic miracle. The country has become a hotbed for future-facing industries such as battery manufacturing and tech.
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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.
A recession would slow that of course, but if there is one in Poland it will likely affect Britain as well, while the latter deal with the biggest State and the highest taxes in 70 years – all under a “Conservative” government.
Then there’s this to make Kiwis feel worse:
In education, Poland excels too. It consistently ranks among the top five or six in reading, maths and science out of 38 OECD countries — well above richer countries such as Britain, France or Germany. This lays the foundation for continued future strong economic growth.
They’ve got problems, like any other nation, but not as many as they had thirty years ago, and a growing economy solves a hell of lot of problems.
I’d be willing to bet that there are lessons New Zealand could learn from this, but frankly they would not be any lessons we couldn’t already learn from other examples in history, like West Germany’s re-start in 1948:
The Freiburg approach was not laissez-faire: government was to be active in promoting competition and protecting free markets from monopoly, public or private. It also allowed for a small degree of wealth redistribution through graduated income taxation and social welfare programs, but it was insistent on keeping tax rates low enough to prevent economic disincentives to productive effort.
…
Industrial output increased 50 percent within the year, and national income, which had fallen 20% below that of 1936, was restored to that level in just over a year and continued to climb fast. Unemployment did climb and peaked at 10.4% by 1950, but steadily dropped for the rest of the decade.Morever, this approach beat the publicised plans of the proponents of central planning. Their “Long Term Plan of 1948 predicted that by 1952-53 the industrial production would reach 110 percent of the 1936 level and agriculture 100%. Another study done in 1950 by four German research institutes – which supposedly already took account of things like the Marshall Plan, the Korean War and the success of the Freiburg plan to that date – said that five years would be needed by government planners to hit their goals – and needed another $1.5 billion in US aid beyond the Marshall Plan.
Under the Freiburg plan all those targets were met and exceeded: Industrial production in 1952-53 averaged about 150 instead of 110. Net agricultural output was 111 percent of pre-war instead of 100. The overall balance of payments was highly favorable and even the dollar sector was approaching balance.
No Minister 
A nation that crawled back from a devastation un matched during world war II from both Germany and Russia who in concert under the Molotov/Ribbentrop treaty were not satisfied to invade and carve up the relatively new Nation but went on to slaughter thousands of the educated leadership including religious civilian and military.
I consider their Catholicism is one factor in the resurgence from suffocating Communist rule that lasted half a century before the Thatcher/Reagan/Gorbachev outbreak of sense and sensibility set that course for a great people.
Lies, damned lies and statistics, that is absolute feckin nonsense. it is a PPP growth off an index. The US also fares badly against china on those sort of comparisons but continues to grow GDP per capita much more strongly in absolute terms.
I’m surprised at your vehemence as I find non-PPP comparisons of GDP to be the damned lies and statistics. In fact I’d regard it as nonsense to ignore the cost of living in a nation when looking at national per capita consumption and/or wealth.
In fact here’s the China-USA comparison showing that the US is still well ahead based on PPP.
You are so ignorant of history my friend – Poland was the major European power in the 16th century.
It then made the mistake of taking on Russia and was eventually dismembered by Sweden and Russia eventually disappearing as a sovereign entity until revived in the aftermath of WW1.
It is apparently coming back because the Godless Evil Empire wishes to use the Poles as cannon fodder against Russia because they a running out of Ukrainians to feed into the cauldron
Poland was the major European power in the 16th century.
I’ve read With Fire and Sword so am well aware of it. Doesn’t change the past 200+ years of history.