Comment by shakow | Hacker News Reader

Comment by shakow | Hacker News Reader

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> having moved from capitalist America to post-communist Poland

Poland is definitely a very nice place to live right now, and improvements since the fall of the communist government is undeniable.

However, please note that not all Polish growth is just due to capitalism knocking to the door – the country is the recipient of a huge amount of EU funds[0]. To illustrate it, France, the 2nd largest net contributor to the EU budget, gives barely more than Poland receives, even though the population is a bit half as big.

Is it a bad thing? Not necessarily. But it is definitely not an illustration of a post-communist country standing by its own self.

[0] https://www.statista.com/chart/18794/net-contributors-to-eu-...

> the country is the recipient of a huge amount of EU funds

What shaped Poland into something acceptable as a NATO member was USAID - the program Musk and Big Balls axed.

USAID allowed Poland to join NATO and later the EU. I've snatched the 188-pages long PDF[0] (English/Polish) before it was publicly erased.

[0] https://sysartist.com/usaid-and-the-polish-decade.pdf

West owed this to Poland after selling it to ussr in Yalta. West Germany got Marshall plan, we got 35 years of russian occupation.

> owed this to Poland

Polish spirit in a nutshell

If you bothered to pick up a history book, maybe you’d understand why.

And if you were bothered with not becoming a military dictature in the 20's-30's, trying to create a network of alliances with your neighbors instead of cutting yourself off from everyone (which is a great feat considered that you and all your neighbors were threatened by the looming USSR), and selling Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany for a couple villages, maybe two of my great uncles wouldn't have died and my whole country wouldn't have been occupied for 4 years in a war where we tried to save you, all for nothing but Poles complaining left and right that “the West should attacked the Soviets in '45”.

BTW, congrats for electing a PiS guy again even though the current state of your country is depending so much on the EU – great, forward thinking, move.

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