PiS-owska economic agenda

Judging by the timing of my postings and delay with which I refer to topical problems, it may seem I am slow off the mark. So instead of writing about mounting Ukrainian crisis, which gets closer to the verge of military conflict, I will refer to the headline-hitting, newly-published agenda of the leading oppositional party.

The document sets out to diagnose the current state of Poland as the utter downfall, to which Poland was plunged under the feckless rule of prime minister Tusk and names the current misery as “system Tuska” and then delineates how, when PiS headed by its leader, JarKacz, take over power, to lift Poland up from this misery and make the country thrive.

I am generally wary of all quick fixes – sort of easier-said-than-done solutions that would turn the country around within mere a few years, make it a land of milk and honey, inhabited by prosperous people, with expanding economy and well-run, efficient government. As a matter of principle, I give such diagnoses a miss. It takes little to make out what is wrong, it takes more wits to pertinently identify reasons why something does not work properly and the biggest challenge is to come up with feasible ideas to set things right.

I deliberately leave out what has been said by numerous critics of the agenda, i.e. PiS politicians promise to spend billions of zlotys, but fail to show how it is going to raise the money for: allowances for families, decreasing pension age, huge investments, health service, tax credits for entrepreneurs and in the meantime reduce public debt. I do not believe in policy of working miracles, because only a miracle could make ends of this agenda meet and I suppose no economically literate recipient of this document (or JarKacz’s speeches) would put stock in hollow promises as his whole story does not even appear to hang together. Even advocates of PiS policies admit widespread giving-out smacks of populism, but over-promising is an ordinarily used tactics even in mature democracies.

I will do my best to dissect all agendas of all political parties whenever they appear, and they should spring up in abundance before 2015 parliamentary elections. As PiS came up with its agenda first, its file came under fire first. I make no claims to be an expert in all areas of life, I generally know little about health service or military forces, but have some notion of economics and as a banking sector employee, am quite well-versed in its workings and limitations, therefore in my analysis I will focus only in the “Economy” section and drill down only some of those paragraphs I am capable of assessing.

The general diagnose on the current state of Polish economy (pages 73 – 74) is that it is stuck in low-growth trap, from which it can break out by unleashing the untapped development resources, with the help and co-ordination of the government, which should pro-actively engage in pursuit of economic policies.

The growth resources are simple and complex. The former are money Poland will receive from the EU funds and… (page 76)

Poza funduszami unijnymi maksymalnie uruchomimy znaczne środki własne i oszczędności przedsiębiorstw państwowych oraz wykorzystamy nadpłynność banków.

What are the „own funds” and how are they [PiS] going to make use of state-run enterprises’ savings and banks’ overliquidity? This all reminds me of acquisition of Lithaunian Mozeiku refinery by PKN Orlen in 2006, the purely political (buy it to spite the Russians) decision, taken, as with hindsight proven, without properly carried out due diligence. The refinery was purchased for 2.34 billion USD in 2006, while in 2013 PKN Orlen was weighing up whether to divest of the Lithuanian operations for 125 million USD. In the meantime, between 2007 and 2011 the oil producer recognised massive impairment losses, reflecting the fact the refinery was purchased well above its fair value. The business failure came to a pass also because, in the act of revenge, Russians cut off the pipeline running to the refinery due to a breakdown in July 2006, while negotiations regarding the purchase were still under way. This did not dissuade Polish decision-makers from pressing ahead with the purchase. Then, in 2008, Lithuanian railroads ripped off tracks running to the refinery, rendering it useless for months, as there was no infrastructure between the facility and the port in Klaipeda. The Lithuanian business began to break even in 2012. The estimated loss to the Polish taxpayers, counting in purchase of assets above their fair value, operating losses, costs of debt service and missed opportunities is estimated at 20 billion PLN, more than 2% of Poland’s general government debt. There are ample examples of flawed decisions on acquisitions made in the private sector, but there costs of management’s inflated ambitions (chief driver of such transactions) are borne mostly by the company’s shareholders, not by taxpayers.

I dread to think how the PiS government intends to crack down on overliquidity in the Polish banking sector. Is it going to coerce banks to lend money?

Zastosujemy także pozabudżetowy mechanizm inwestycyjny z zaangażowaniem aktywów spółek Skarbu Państwa, w tym spółki Polskie Inwestycje Rozwojowe i Banku Gospodarstwa Krajowego, a także specjalistyczne mechanizmy wspierania inwestycji, np. na wzór LTRO (Long Term Refinancing Operation – program Europejskiego Banku Centralnego) i programów proinwestycyjnych na Węgrzech.

Does the author know what LTRO consists in? The definition provided towards the bottom of page 76 does not closely match what I found through search engine. This is not an investment-supporting programme, but a liquidity-enhancing measure and is aimed at helping out banks having too many illiquid, poor-quality assets. Polish banks neither struggle liquidity squeeze, nor have portfolios of badly-performing assets, what is then the reason for application of such measure? As it was rightly noted, Polish banking sector has a problem of excess liquidity, totalling to 30 billion PLN.

When it comes to the banking sector, credit expansion towards SMEs is to be facilitated by guarantees issued by the state-owned bank (BGK, page 77)

Wzmocnienie możliwości gwarancyjnych polskiego BGK w granicach od 65 do 100 mld zł w latach 2015 – 2021 będzie rozwiązaniem bezpiecznym, niewymagającym nakładów ze strony państwa i neutralnym dla budżetu.

When making such move, you should be aware of two facts. Firstly, a bank which lends to a business against a guarantee issued by BGK bears effectively credit risk of BGK, because if a customer defaults, the bank has a claim on the guarantor. This means commercial banks need to have credit limits for BGK, which although not regulatory capped, are in practice limited by ceilings will be imposed by banks’ internal policies. Secondly, issuing guarantees necessitate raising equity to meet capital adequacy requirements, what, assuming BGK stays 100% state-owned, means the government would need to inject money to pay-in the capital, thus making the sentence above from the PiS agenda true, only if current own funds of BGK give enough headroom to issue guarantees in aforementioned amounts. On pages 77 and 78, the document says…

Polscy przedsiębiorcy prywatni ulokowali na rachunkach bankowych (w postaci lokat długoterminowych) środki rzędu 200 mld zł. Jest to znaczny zasób rozwojowy, a państwo ma obowiązek działać na rzecz jego uruchomienia poprzez stworzenie systemu zachęt inwestycyjnych w systemie podatkowym. W przygotowanym Prawo i Sprawiedliwość projekcie ustawy o podatkach dochodowych (PIT i CIT) znalazły się rozwiązania pozwalające na 100-procentową amortyzację nakładów inwestycyjnych w roku ich poniesienia, a w przypadku wydatków na badania i rozwój – nawet na podwójne odliczenie. Szacuje się, że po wejściu tych rozwiązań w życie w ciągu najbliższych 6–7 lat wspomniana kwota 200 mld zł będzie przeznaczona na inwestycje.

During my 3-years’ career I have never seen any company which put its excess money on bank deposits with term longer than 3 months. And mere tax credits are not a cure for businesses’ reluctance to invest. I could argue with more of the statements above, but as both the author of this part of the agenda as I lack strong backing in favour of our assertions, such argument would get us nowhere. Let’s turn to page 79 then.

Kolejnym instrumentem kumulowania złożonych zasobów rozwojowych będzie udomowienie banków. Będziemy wspierać działania upowszechniające polską własność w sektorze bankowym. (...) Pierwszym jest przyrost organiczny, czyli szybszy rozwój banków krajowych poprzez rozwijanie akcji kredytowej i zwiększanie depozytów. Drugi sposób polega na zakładaniu i rozwoju nowych instytucji opartych o kapitał krajowy. W tym celu muszą zostać wprowadzone preferencje dla małych instytucji, w tym spółdzielczych. Trzecim sposobem jest przejęcie banków opartych o kapitał zagraniczny przez podmioty krajowe zaliczane do sektora finansowego, w których Skarb Państwa ma znaczące udziały. Udomowieniu banków będzie towarzyszyła rozbudowa polskiej bankowości o zasięgu lokalnym typu hipotecznego, spółdzielczego lub kas oszczędnościowo-kredytowych. Udomowienie banków zwiększy zaangażowanie polskiego sektora finansowego w rozwój gospodarczy, szczególnie poprzez akcję kredytową, w tym udzielanie kredytów inwestycyjnych.

„Domesticating” the banks is not an entirely new concept. Of course, proportions of capital ownership can be changed by organic growth, but in line with previously mentioned capital adequacy requirements, in order to extend more loans, you need to shore up banks’ equities. How would it be ensured that holders of such equity would be only Polish entities? In order to overtake the risk-averse banks run from their head office abroad, lending standards would also have too be loosed, running the risk of severe losses in the economic downturn. Takeovers executed by state-owned banks are the most controversial idea. Firstly, it decreases competition and even without effective merger which could be blocked by competition watchdog (recall incomplete merger of Pekao and BPH in 2007?), control over the banking sector could be concentrated in one pair of hands. Secondly, it would cost billions of zlotys and if political goals are set above sound business reasoning, state-owned banks are likely to pay over the odds for their targets.

These are just a few examples of flawed or undoable concepts from the economic agenda of PiS. Apart from them it contains several questionable ideas, transferring free-market mechanism of economic self-regulation to the hands of the government and several good ideas, which, if properly implemented, could unleash potential of Polish small and medium companies and make business environment in Poland more friendly. Nevertheless, the approach to the economy is too statist for me. Too many control and co-ordination mechanisms are put forward. The government, whose areas of control or regulation are too wide, is unlikely to be lean, i.e. cheap and efficient.

I am looking forward to newly-released economic agendas of main political parties in Poland. When they are published, I promise to pick out incongruities and share them with you.

Too much filth will kill you...

Back from holidays again – experienced a total logout from work and tomorrow the first thing I’ll need will be a password reset to access my computer. Even the weather diffidently signals time to return to corpo-world has come – the recent heat wave gave way to a downpour and temperatures plunged by 10C, giving a blissful relief from the heat. And may it stay so…

Got some time to catch up with film watching and finally watched Drogówka, the fourth film by Wojtek Smarzowski which went on the silver screens in February this year.

Mr Smarzowski’s film-directing attainment is definitely incomparable to any other contemporary film-maker in Poland. To put it briefly, in Smarzowski’s world there’s no choice between good and evil, the best option is only the lesser of tow evils… In his (in)famous four films he deftly depicts the darkest side of life, pouring the filth into the audience, making you want to take a shower and wash away all the dirt that has stuck to you while watching.

For many people I know even his first film, Wesele, released in 2004 and favourably received by critics, was intolerable. The film is actually a very ‘light’ depiction of the dark side of Polish mentality, showed in the background of a provincial wedding. The story of pregnant bride coerced to marry a groom bought-off by his would-be father-in-law sheds light on the worst traits of provincial duplicity: caring more about “what people say” (keeping up appearances) and money than about relatives’ happiness. Striking shady business is more important than grandpa’s sudden death, stolen Audi TT is more important than just-married wife and a child she will give birth to. Well-done and well-balanced art…

Dom Zły (especially with English subtitles, Jamie, are you still with us?) takes you back to the days of Martial Law and, in retrospections, to late 1970s. The picture is dirty, at times vulgar and explicit, yet taking into account the purport of the film, suitable. Form should fit the content and in this case the balance is still struck.

I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t found time, even in the last days (when still I was kind of busy doing some overdue refurbishment works around the house), to watch Róża. My mother, who watched it (but refused to watch it with me), told me cruelty and filth was dosed out moderately. The film, set in post-war reality of “regained lands” shows the dark side of events that actually took place and the depiction simply lacks censorship that would erase the ugliest parts. Yet, as critics say, given the historical background, use of abhorrent content is justifiable.

Compared to the newest Smarzowski’s film, the three previous could be classified as late-afternoon cartoons for polite children. In Drogówka, subsidised by State Film Art Institute and favourably reviewed by critics, the batty director has gone over the top and I will stand up for this view despite by general insensitivity to filth. The film was meant to over-expose all the pathologies plaguing the Polish police, in particular its road traffic forces. In fact only some of the pathologies showed in the film are the daily bread – these are mainly use of foul language or offensive jokes. Other alleged afflictions depicted in the film are simply marginal problems – gone are the days of wide-spread corruption, hardly ever can you find policemen gaining fortunes on bribery, regularly visiting brothels and raping accidentally met women. When the film was released I found the police representative’s statement, claiming the film discredits police, exaggerated and unfounded. Upon watching this and sticking it out (which I consider a success, as the plot is anything but gripping) I have to take back my words. As three previous film showed actual dark side of life, were waspish and cruel, yet fair, this one is a one massive distortion. The amount of obscene content is also fairly overdosed. The film could have done without explicit scenes of anal sex in the escort agency and one of the last scenes – oral sex on the back seat of a car, tragically ended by rear-ending could have also been edited out and without those two shots the film would have soaked with filth anyway. I have nothing against showing moral downfall, as I believe when it exists in fact, as such eye-popping naturalism showed to the public may help eradicate evil. In Drogówka intensity of filth might be unbearable even for the toughest audience.

I only wonder whether Mr Smarzowski takes pleasure in shooting such films. With each next film his exploration of dirt gets deeper, naturalism grows into over-naturalism and I don’t feel like watching his next attempt, no matter how many stars it receives in review in “Co jest grane”…

The scream of exasperation...

A round anniversary means usually celebrations – almost the whole Poland will come to a halt for a minute at five in the afternoon to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising.

Sadly, the celebrations are laced with politicking, taking away from one another the heritage of Armia Krajowa (EN: Home Army). The more time goes by, the more myths there are about those events, the less veterans celebrate it alive, the first day of August becomes the day for the politicians to demonstrate their attachment (true or feigned?) to the history of contemporary Poland. Today our president once again accentuated he stemmed from the family with patriotic traditions – his father had taken part in the fights of the Uprising, his mother as he declared also had participated in it. As many critics pointed out Kaczyński’s mother spent those days hidden somewhere on the Mazovian countryside, his father indeed fought, but president somehow passes over the rest of his life – mostly membership in PZPR and lucrative contracts in Libya… Kaczyński seems to have a monopoly for all the graceful accomplishments of Poles in their history since the beginning of WW2 – equating his opponents to ZOMO…

My family, to be precise my mother’s aunt (cousin of my grandmother) and my mother’s cousin try to persuade me that my R.I.P. grandmother was one of insurgents in the Uprising – they follow the tendency to proliferate the number of insurgents, coin the next myths, so they do something I disapprove of. In fact my grandmother was just a civilian and did not participate in the fights, many times she carried the messages for the insurgents through the sewers, many times she acted as a nurse and looked after the wounded insurgents, but what is the point in adding her merits she had not deserved? She lost her parents in the uprising, on 5th August 1944 the tenement where she lived was bombarded, so she lost all her belongings, until he end of September she roamed around (meanwhile helping as I mentioned) Warsaw’s basements or rubble, looking out for shelters, then in the last days of September she was captured by the Germans and got away from the transport to temporary German camp in Pruszków and escaped to the countryside where she waited out the last months of the war. WW2, which a heavy toll on her – she lost her dearest ones – parents and first husband (he was a soldier of Home Army, died in the battle of Monte Cassino in May 1944), during the uprising as a result of protracted stress her hair turned grey…

This year the press reports are also abundant in critical articles and commentaries about Warsaw Uprising, with the ones by professor Jan Ciechanowski coming to the fore. Some regard it as a blasphemy, but I, without taking a line on it, think it is necessary to let such people give their voice. Brushing aside the entire mythology I can today pay respects to my peers, young inhabitants of Warsaw in the flower of their youth who paid the ultimate price in the uneven fight against the German occupier. They were fighting the losing battle, as mine and my friends’ grandparents say, the Uprising was doomed to end with a total defeat… That is why I am not sure whether the generals who were in charge of the Uprising deserve my respect. They brought about something what was totally unprepared and consequently turned into mayhem… My friend’s grandfather who came alive from Auschwitz concentration camp and who was in the centre of Warsaw on 1st August sixty fives years ago says “Hour W” is just a myth, someone tossed a grenade and thus gave a cue to the outbreak… Generals undoubtedly badly foresaw the political situation – Stalin’s army stopped on the East bank of Vistula and stayed there until mid-September – according to Stalin’s plans Warsaw was wiped out and the place was ready to build a new capital of dependent country, build after the communist fashion… Should we blame our allies – United States and Great Britain? Together with Stalin they divided the cake in the conference in Teheran a year earlier. Churchill and Roosevelt admitted they had to give in – Soviet contribution in war against Nazi was too big (for Stalin sending the regiments of thousands of soldiers to die in the battle was like snapping his fingers) and they had to accept his conditions concerning the new spheres of influences in Europe – and so Poland, the everlasting enemy of the Russian nation became a satellite country of the communist empire, it could be worse, we weren’t incorporated into the Soviet Union and were not a soviet republic.

What else could be done? Maybe we should not allow for such material losses and death toll – the ones who died were mostly of the intelligentsia. Maybe if they had lived out they would have helped build a better country even under the conditions of subjection to Soviet Union, maybe they would be accused of collaboration with the Nazi and imprisoned, tortured or maybe just sentenced to death…

I do not hold with the proposals of declaring the anniversary of Uprising’s outbreak a national holiday. I do not want to celebrate the calamity…

And last but not least, the radio journalists asked today what was the patriotism of Poles living at the beginning of twenty-first century. In the times of peace when there is no need to lay down the life for the homeland, there are many way in which it can be manifested. Offhand I figured out a weird one – my today’s resolution is that I will not put my money into so-called antybelka (very often offered these days, for instance by Open Finance or Eurobank) – I will not evade taxes within the letter of law in the situation when my state is in need of money. I will not evade taxes, I will not pick up a fight, I will not emanate with hatred, I will not be green with envy, I will not cease to criticise my country when necessary but I will be proud when there are serious reasons to be, I will not spread myths…?

Breaking the silence...

Following the anecdote posted as a comment to my previous post about Polish mentality I think I can dissociate myself from the fellow blogger’s journey companions and put forward some solutions. Having read the story of discussion in the train I devised some concepts on what should be changed in Poland, slept on them, let them run through my head, now it’s time to tap them into my keyboard and later on spread into the outer world…

I classified my suggestions into three categories, according to the blog’s title. I doubt whether I did it correctly, but I hope it’s a minor glitch and the overall view is what matters here. It will be long, turns out to be the longest post ever, but I believe it’s worth spending half an hour reading it.

POLITICS

To start with, our perception of that realm critically needs to be modified. Today people come to politics driven by their lust for power, money, privileges, etc. and all of those factors which attract them to our sweet mire in fact corrupt them. The ideal model I would opt for is in a way close to the one which functions in the United States. The ones who decide to become politicians should be mature, experienced, reputable citizens, who had already achieved a lot in their lives but still strive for more. Position in politics should crown somebody’s career and should be therefore treated as distinction and public service to the compatriots. Money should not be a reason why people engage in political activity – politicians should be already well-off people who’d like to do something to the others and the financial aspect of their offices shouldn’t play a significant role.

I thought about some standards which could be set to be me met by politicians, for instance a precondition of graduation of university to be allowed to run for seat in parliament, to be a minister or president. The education should moreover be relevant to the post held by a certain official. At second thought I gave it up – firstly cause it’s in contradiction with the principles of democracy and equality of all citizens, secondly I took a quick at our two former and our current presidents. The first completed vocational school, the second lied about his full university education, the third is a professor and is he any wiser by that virtue?

Let’s touch upon a gist of democracy and misunderstanding it. Some of us, Poles, think it’s still not the best system, some discern its weaknesses but can’t find any alternative, some as allegedly the milieu of Gazeta Wyborcza sometimes give the skewed picture of democracy. In democracy everybody should have equal right to give voice to their opinions and nobody is entitled to claim that Kaczyński twins ought to be sent back to the moon. The beauty of democracy consists in the diversity of the political scene, big and wide enough to find room for moderate centre parties, left and right wing, populists and lunatic fringes. Everyone is granted a right to set up a party and register it, unless it refers to the ideas of communism or nazism. What I’m getting at is that nobody can say that “the Law and Justice party should disappear from our political arena”, no matter how many conceited journalists or pundits would utter such words, it mustn’t happen. Law and Justice will exist as long as there will be the political demand for them. Those are the citizens who decide about political future of politicians and it’s their role to deprive them of power, like they did with AWS in 2001 or Samoobrona and LPR in 2007. We have the power to send the ones who screwed it up to the political nonentity. And we can draw them out of there, dust them off, whenever it occurs to us our country is in need of them.

The next part is on the sidelines of politics – it connects law and bureaucracy. The first should be for sure devoid of loopholes, lame legislations but most of all clear. All the legal acts, deeds, decrees, bills should be rewritten into plain Polish (without bombastic, long, confound phrases), intelligible for an ordinary citizen. The formulation of many provisions leaves a lot to be desired – in a correct version legal regulations ought to be concise and meticulously stipulate everything, step by step, leaving no doubt what is required in a certain situation, how should the proceedings run, how is the particular case handled. And ubiquitous red tape which express lack of trust and need to control everything, keep an account, have stats about everything. Piles of papers, ladies with their omnipotent stamps behind the counters – that should be replaced with mechanism friendly for citizen but allowing the administrative system to function effectively. The approach of both state and people has to change here – state offices should provide the information for their applicants and the applicants should come to the offices fitted out in knowledge on what they want to handle – efficient mutual aid would make lives of both parties involved easier but the willingness is here essential.

ECONOMY

The thing I’ve condemned most often on this blog is the current pension system in Poland, chiefly its second pillar, so called open pension funds. The biggest evil here is the compulsory participation combined with extortionate charges. My counter-proposal is that:
1) the participation in first pillar (ZUS) should be obligatory, it should guarantee every working citizen a diminutive pension benefit, sufficient enough to eke out a living – thus the premium would be quite low. Everybody should pay the same per cent of their salary, in my view less than five per cent, and everybody should be granted benefit in the same amount after pensioning off – that would be the element of social solidarity.
2) I don’t want the pension funds to be wound down – participation in that part of the system shouldn’t be, however obligatory. The newly employed ones shouldn’t be forced to choose a pension fund, the ones who already save there for their pension should be permitted to withdraw all their money amassed there, no matter how big fluctuations on financial markets it would cause. Government should clearly state it gives the citizens free rein and let them save for their pension on their own. If they wish, they can join OFE if they think their money would be managed properly there, if not, set it aside to a bank, buy pension insurance, invest in stocks, bonds or simply go on binge and throw it around within one night if it’s their wish. Scholar like professor Marek Góra have repeatedly asserted that people are too stupid to save for their retirement on their own. Maybe indeed they are, but humans are free and no one, virtually no one can make them pay private companies for managing their money, regardless of the investment results. If you wish, do whatever you want with your money, but don’t expect the state to help you if you spend your money foolishly. Maybe it’s inhuman, but that’s probably the only way we can take matters into our own hands. Besides, government should encourage people to save, through tax relieves and promotion drives, so give incentive not coerce! More about my views on pension system – click tag “OFE”.

Almost everyone in this country grumbles about their tiredness after twenty five years of working, average age of retirement is the lowest in Europe – a shameful figure. Let’s do away with the pathology and put the system of undeserved privileges to an end – people in Poland pension off cause they’re too lazy, sick of their jobs, but nobody realises their pension benefits are financed from other taxpayers’ premiums and taxes (every years ZUS receives a subsidy from state budget), or maybe to be closer to the actual truth – they push it away from their minds. Changing the ratio of employed to unemployed would surely cure our public finance sector. Early retirement is considered a privilege, whereas I think it should signify someone’s weakness – if you’re unable to work you must be ailing, something wrong must be wrong with you if you don’t want to contribute to the creation of national income.
When we’re at social welfare field – it’s time to crack down on fictitious certificates of inability to work excessively made out by doctors. Guy comes to the doctor and asks: “Sir, I’m forty-five, I don’t feel like working any more, I want to get the benefit”. Who pays for such lies and laziness? We!

Claimant’s stance – it’s about time we realised that the state which collects taxes is not an institutions which rips us off. For the taxes we pay we get the infrastructure, schools, partly health service, officials working for us. Let’s switch into another stance – not what I deserve but what I can give. We don’t want to pay taxes but we want to get the benefits from state – for free?

In a few years time I’d propose reaching the balanced budget. Expenditure will not exceed revenue – simple, although never applied. Less money would be needed to finance the debt, investors will lose safe, risk-free securities, gilt-edged securities would not have to be obligatorily bought by pension funds. Markets would sooner or later cope with it somehow – the topic is elaborated on in one of the early posts.

Taxation – the everlasting dilemma of combining justice and effectiveness. Solution? – make it simple, as simple as possible. Reduce tax relieves to minimum, they give a lot of room for abuses, reducing them will also bring down the amount of paperwork to be done to serve it. My suggestion is a flat tax with annual deductions of around ten to fifteen thousand zlotys – the effective taxation rate will be progressive – thus the poorest would pay very little or no tax and as the income would grow, the effective rate of taxation would also rise, but not as drastically as it does now.

The labour relations are where the two conflicting interests coincide. The employers want to pay as little as possible and exploit the workforce as much as possible, the employees would like to work as little as possible and get as much as possible. In the face of this, employers represent the wild capitalism and trade unions represent “who cares” approach. The former don’t take into account some factors (they’re humans, not machines, they have to provide for their families) as they’re chasing profits, the latter selfishly require pay rises and prevent lay-offs no matter how bad the situation of the company is. The trade unions should intervene only when the employer treats his staff really unfairly, in other cases their strikes are to be regarded as disrupting enterprise’s functioning. The “give and take” deal would be helpful here – both parties should make concessions and act in unison bearing in mind the consequences for the another party.

Monetary policy – I can’t say I disapprove of the way it is led currently, nevertheless I would opt for a bit tighter one. Price stability is the overriding goal in my opinion, our country can’t pay the price of high inflation just to retain the high pace of economic growth. There’s also another dimension of keeping interest rates high – market participants are encouraged to save and dissuaded from taking out loans. The economy, to a large degree propelled by credit would be cooled down, but just look at the change of behavioural patterns – it appears to be beneficial. Fancy picking on it – go ahead!

Role of state in the economy – first not to harm. But bother to act, where it’s essential. State should counteract monopolies which are indispensable part of free market economy, it should take over some industries where natural monopolies exist – such as utilities. The state firm wouldn’t be geared at profits, instead they’d focus on providing services to people and expected only to break even. Government should be also accountable for maintenance of infrastructure, construction of new roads, etc. All the parts of infrastructure are public goods so I oppose against toll motorways. Of course state projects should be carried out by private companies but roads are to be owned by state and be free for everyone! Another state’s duty which I postulate that it must be fulfilled is the protection of the weakest. The weakest – you mean who? – You’d ask. The poorest? Not this time? According to the popular belief it’s workforce – poor people exploited by the capitalists. The ones who claim it to my eye depart from the truth. Workers might take industrial actions or resort to another way of blackmailing their company to attain what they hold out for. The weakest link in the economic chain are the customers. Their rights are violated the most often, it’s harder for them to gather together and protest, although there have been such actions like the one staged by irate mBank clients. The government should provide for the legal regulations aimed at consumer protection, protection from big chain stores, monopolist service providers, etc. Consumers are almost always doomed to lose a battle with the stronger company or have to wait for another company to bring back competition on the market and liberate them from clutches of colluded companies, like Play did on mobile telephony market, causing call charges to drop. The step in a good direction is the activity of UKE, with Anna Streżyńska in charge of the office.

Is anything more to be done? Certainly yes, state should actively participate and support all programmes of financial education. The society which understands the mechanisms of economy is less susceptible to yield to populists, can manage their finances better. Better education and raised awareness could also prevent such situations as run on investment funds at the peak of bull market in 2007. Well-educated citizens are then more likely to be treated as wise and responsible and assumed to be able to do without guides.

SOCIETY

The phenomenon which looms as the most disturbing these days is imperviousness (PL: znieczulica), the disease, which afflicted our society. An old woman suddenly passes out in the street – what’s your reaction – it doesn’t concern you, it’s not your business, you’re in hurry. That the classic example – pedestrians pass by, cars drive by, fortunately there’s almost always somebody to stop, call help, bring round. Why are we so insensitive, has anybody wondered what how would the other people behave if it happened to us? Some time ago I started donating small sums of money to charity or making transfers into the accounts of my fellows in need. My contribution is always small – I’ve never given more than twenty zlotys to one person, however I deeply believe if many people give a few zlotys the sum required for treatment or for other purpose will be raised. It also involves trust, cause I have to believe I’m not endorsing someone who tries to cadge off money.

Mistrust – the next disease which slowly devours our society, undermining its foundations, loosening bonds between its members. It goes down from the highest strata of our society – from elites, bringing us down to uncivilised standards of behaviour. Former minister of justice recorded his talks cause he had been driven by mistrust. People lie to one another, cause they’re driven by mistrust, it’s way of playing safe. “If I tell the truth, I’ll be worse off” – that’s our philosophy. Every time someone wants to gives us a hand we’re scratching beneath the surface and try to discover real ignoble intentions. Let’s change it – let’s trust one another, world is full of bastards but good men still prevail, let’s believe in sincerity, compassion, don’t be driven by egoism, mind the others, their needs. The rule of synergy usually applies, so two plus two might give five, but two lies never give one truth. You may benefit from help you give to your fellows, maybe immediately, maybe in the future, maybe not materially but through spiritual satisfaction or through the priceless feeling of well-fulfilled duty.

Money. During the lecture in diplomatic protocol I found out the topic of money is not brought up between well-mannered people. Poland is a shameful example, we quite often boast about our money, that is a bit silly but not harmful, there’s a much worse trend. We simply detest when other people have more money than we, but the worst is that we suppose they come into that money in a criminal way. How does it work? Your neighbour buys a brand new cars. First impression – you’re green with envy, second thought – where did he take the money from? Everyone who owns a mansion, top-of-the-range car, still gets about, wears brand clothes must be a criminal, thief, must conduct a shady business. To big money one can come into by sheer hard work, often making huge sacrifices. My parents have been scrimping and saving for years to buy a terraced house, they have never earned very well but they lied to their family, friends about our financial situation. The same was done by our family and friends, everyone lies they have very little money and barely make ends meet, it’s a pathology, it’s cult of losers, disseminated also by Kaczyński twins – they’re proud they haven’t amassed any property, except for the house of their parents. In America, they’d be ridiculed for it! If you see your neighbour buys a new car, try to match up to him – pull up your socks, work harder, be high-flyer. In Poland it’s easier to bring somebody down than to pull yourself up. That’s why we’re not likely to be as rich as the other nations. The best illustration of our mentality is the scene from “Dzień Świra” – Pole’s prayer, approach entrenched in our mentality – gloomy picture…

Gdy wieczorne zgasną zorze,
zanim głowę do snu złożę,
modlitwę moją zanoszę,
Bogu Ojcu i Synowi.
Dopierdolcie sąsiadowi!
Dla siebie o nic nie wnoszę,
tylko mu dosrajcie, proszę!
Kto ja jestem?
Polak mały! Mały, zawistny i podły!
Jaki znak mój? Krwawe gały!
Oto wznoszę swoje modły do Boga, Maryi i Syna!
Zniszczcie tego skurwysyna!
Mojego rodaka, sąsiada, tego wroga, tego gada!
Żeby mu okradli garaż,
żeby go zdradzała stara,
żeby mu spalili sklep,
żeby dostał cegłą w łeb,
żeby mu się córka z czarnym
i w ogóle, żeby miał marnie!
Żeby miał AIDS-a i raka,
oto modlitwa Polaka!

Sorry for expletives, sorry for the blasphemy and sorry for the lack of translation.

Initially I planned to refrain from referring to Polish Catholicism. It might be offensive, it might be distressing, I’ll hold back and only share one observation – it’s unreflective. Poles go to church cause they were taught to do so, their faith isn’t really strong, doesn’t rest on foundations, Poles treat catholic teachings selectively, the best example is the attitude to pre-marital sex or contraception. What should the church be? Not the buildings, not the clergy but the community of believers – that’s in my, atheist’s opinion the definition of church. I deeply respect and admire true believers who follow Ten Commandments and mostly obey the ultimate Great Commandment, those who are always ready to lend a helping hand, show compassion, never hate, never condemn, are far cry from Polish Catholicism after Radio Maryja’s fashion. Ten Commandments contain some universal rules every decent and moral man should obey and faith in God or belonging to the church should not be a benchmark of being a good man. Church’s attempts to interfere into public life by opposing against in vitro fertilisation or abortion are groundless for me. The true Catholic would never have an abortion, so trying to make everybody comply with the ethics of Catholic church bears witness or church’s weakness. I know it’s a controversial topic, however, we deal here with the matters of human conscience.

It was meant to be shorter, I swear. It was meant to be a collection of my proposals, which put together would outline the shape of Poland I’d dream up. It turned out to be rather a downbeat diagnosis of our national bad traits, analysis of the stereotypes. If in spite of this you deem this post valuable, spread it, give links to, paste some excerpts, I sign away any rights to it. There are the moments when I believe that my country can be changed, there are also the moments when I doubt whether it will ever happen, but without concerted effort it's unattainable...