Originally posted by Sandman
GDP per capita:
1. Luxembourg ($48309 per person)
2. United States ($35991 per person)
..
..
..
76. Poland ($9662 per person)
Military expenditures per capita
1. Israel ($1466 per person)
3. United States ($953 per person)
..
..
..
54. Poland ($90 per person)
Poland IS less of a country.
source
An ex-girlfriend had her cousin over from Poland for the summer... Works as a waitress for $1 per hour in Krakow. She's college age, and evidently part of what is known over there as the "Lost Generation"...
Many people over there evidently feel that when we've had our fill with them, when we've used them enough, they'll be left to the wolves... Not as though we haven't done that to them before.
The place has one of the saddest economies in Europe... But, then again, basically for the majority of the last century, their best and brightest, their leaders, visionaries, and go-getters, were systematically slaughtered by various brutal regimes.
The kids these days don't know what to do with themselves. Over there, they don't go to college to party, they go to college to work their bellybutton off, and then when they graduate, their college diploma is seen by many as a worthless piece of paper...
Many I've met actually preferred communism... For the simple reason that at least then they had work.
That's just a very, very sad statement for how well we help our Allies. And yes, they are an Ally, one of what seems these days to be our few.
Now I'm not going to say I know the whole story, I've never been to Poland and everything I've said is based on the opinions of a relative few (maybe 5-6 Poles in total). But I will say that I believe them and they have my sympathy.
They are most certainly NOT any less of a country. At least not according to the values I've been raised to believe. That "all men are created equal". Not just the strong or rich. All.
