There are many pieces of evidence and facts attesting to the positive impact of the Polish economic model based on social solidarity. One of them might be the fact of how the Polish economy maintained stability, resilience, and a swift return to economic growth after the Covid-19 pandemic crisis and the energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine.
Countries such as Germany, Spain, France and the Czech Republic have not increased their GDP since 2019, or over the last four years. Poland, in this comparison, is the leader, having increased its GDP by approximately 7.5 percent since 2019 and by 10 percent up to the beginning of 2022. This achievement was the result of the parallel application of several measures from 2016, including social programs such as the “500+” program, minimum wage increase, average wage increase, tax reduction, pension increases, and many other family investments.
The 500+ program can be seen as an investment, as it has contributed to employment growth and, at the same time, has increased households’ economic potential, and most importantly, has had a significant impact on reducing poverty among Polish children under the age of 18.
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The effect of various actions taken by the Polish government supporting families, businesses, and infrastructure investments since 2016 has brought about a strong increase in households’ purchasing power.
The purchasing power of Polish citizens since 2022 is larger than that of the Portuguese and has approached that of Spain, and according to the forecast of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), by 2032, it will exceed the purchasing power of the French, British, Italians and many other European citizens. This is the result, among other things, of the strongly rising average wage and minimum wage, combined with a decrease in unemployment.
Media and ideological propaganda in the West, as well as so-called leaders in Brussels and Germany, try to distort the truth about Polish women’s earnings in relation to men in similar positions. This so-called gender ideology tries to insinuate that Poland, emerging from Catholic traditions, treats women worse in terms of remuneration.
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In reality, the wage gap between women and men in Poland is the lowest and amounts to about 4 percent, which is in fact within the margin of statistical error, while the wage difference between women and men in Germany and Austria is about 20 percent, and in France, Denmark, and the Netherlands, it is significantly higher than in Poland.
Wage and income increases along with fast-growing GDP and productivity in Poland in recent years have contributed to a significant increase in purchasing power, greatly enhancing the economic potential of Polish families and households.
All of this additionally takes place under the conditions of high budgetary revenues, over 1 million Ukrainians working legally in Poland, and a state debt-to-GDP ratio several times lower than in Western Europe.
Poland can serve as an example that a strong economic model can only exist when its constituent entities are strong — when strong families and households are being built from social, spiritual, psychological and economic perspectives.
