The General Political Thread

[Furrnox]

I'm unfamiliar with what kind of changes they've made besides outlawing abortion please enlighten me.

[Toffee]

Well there it is boys. Cohen enters into a plea deal and says that he broke electoral finance law at the direction of the candidate in order to influence the election.  The president has just been implicated in a crime.

[Vincenzo]

I'm unfamiliar with what kind of changes they've made besides outlawing abortion please enlighten me.

They introduced 500+ program.
It promised 500 zloty (about 140 euro) per month from the government per child, mind you that the average salary in this country is like 2000 zloty (about 450 euro), and most low wage jobs like in shops are around 1400 zloty (about 250 euro), meaning borning some kids is usually a higher wage than working full time job.

However when they actually started the program it was only for the 2nd child and up, and after tax reduction you get about 400 zloty, still a lot of money.
So it does push mostly poor families to born a lot of kids.

However what nobody is told is that the Polish government doesn't have this money to spend, they loan it. the national debt of Poland is fast-rising, and no tax increases they can come up with is able to stop it, for instance recently they raised the gasoline tax so high that you pay more for gas in Poland than in Germany, mind you in Germany the income is about 3 times that of Poland.

In the Netherlands we have a saying for this; You get a  cigar out of your own box.

[StevenChilton]

Poland's national debt will be even higher if it doesn't have a big enough workforce in the future to service it. If you're going to borrow money then you'll want to see a return bigger than the cost of interest on it. Polish babies will become adult workers and taxpayers, which is a fantastic investment and worth borrowing to pay for.

[Toffee]

Poland's national debt will be even higher if it doesn't have a big enough workforce in the future to service it. If you're going to borrow money then you'll want to see a return bigger than the cost of interest on it. Polish babies will become adult workers and taxpayers, which is a fantastic investment and worth borrowing to pay for.

That is way too simple to actually happen in real life. Surely the recouping of the investment will be dependent on many other variables such as economic growth which influences the number of jobs available for a dramatically increased population (something which won't be helped by a weak economy), social programs such as higher education (which affects the suitability of the workforce to the jobs available in various industries) as well as the number of people from this new generation that will actually find work.

Since it's likely that this policy will lead to a sharp uptick in population growth, if the economy doesn't match it with the aforementioned factors, it's possible that you could end up with a large amount of unemployed which would then be a drain on welfare systems and end up costing the government even more.

I'm not saying that they can't do it since Poland is obviously one of the fastest growing economies in Europe.  I'm just pointing out the complexities rather than workers=money.

[StevenChilton]

I was only really talking specifically about Poland. Given it's had a fertility rate of below 2.1 per woman for decades they're going to have to sprint simply to stand still. However generally speaking if you have a dynamic, Western-style economy with high individual purchasing power then population growth is a good thing. 

[Toffee]

I was only really talking specifically about Poland. Given it's had a fertility rate of below 2.1 per woman for decades they're going to have to sprint simply to stand still. However generally speaking if you have a dynamic, Western-style economy with high individual purchasing power then population growth is a good thing.

Obviously population growth can be good but I was talking about the idea of excessive growth to the point that economic growth can't keep up. But I see what you mean.

[Ted]

[Queeeen]

oh no he didn't

[Edwin]

#NewZimbabwe

[Lone]

Like a physicist trying to explain quantum physics to 5 year olds.

[Ry@n]

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1006505/Brexit-news-Jeremy-Corbyn-asked-same-question-video-live-interview

[Svensson]

#NewZimbabwe

Rest in peace, Rhodesia. 

[Riddlez]

Just read that John McCain is discontinuing his brain cancer treatment.

https://www.facebook.com/6179724269/posts/10156152358034270/

[Duuring]

Sad. I liked McCain. I'm somewhat surprised he doesn't just resign his seat though. He's not coming back and I assume he has better things to do with his remaining time.