Introduction: Poland has been a country that has seen many battles throughout the 1900s.
During WWII it was invaded by Nazi Germany. Then it was invaded by the Ussr and became
communist. Finally By the late 1980s , the polish reform movement “solidarity” became
essential in bringing around a peaceful switch from a communist state to a capitalist
economy system and a significant parliamentary democracy. This course resulted in the
creation of the modern polish state. Today The economy of Poland is the eighth largest
economy in the European Union and the largest amongst the Eastern members. With the
economic reform of 1989 the Polish external debt increased from $42.2 billion in 1989 to
$365.2 billion in 2014.
The history of Poland has led me to discuss, To what extent was capitalism sustainable in
Poland?
Point: The Reformation of Poland has incentified people to start their own business in the
private sector. An example would be, if someone lived in a place where there was lack of
recourses, they would source them from other countries and resell at a profit. This was
done by a polish man called Jarek Poloczanski, who in 1990 entered the banana-import
business.
Poloczanski was previously a taskforce leader at a private cooperative, where he supervised
a construction in progress. Like his neighbours, he was comfortable to severe shortages of
basic foods. He saw that “exotic” fruits such as bananas and citrus fruits were practically
non-existent, in Poland he saw an opportunity in bananas. Because bananas had been in
short supply since the 1970s, he decided to focus singularly on the banana market. Calling
on his background in the private cooperative, he set out to arrange the right kind of
transportation and storage facilities. This shows that people in Poland are incentified by the
private sector and making money as shown on this line graph below.
Counterclaim:
However Since 1980 Poland has become dependent on the European union which has made
them an unstable country and very dependant .This could all be destroyed by Jaroslaw
Kaczynski [leader of Law and Justice, a party that has the majority in Parliament] risks to
spoil relations with the countries of the European Union. These countries represent 75% of
the Polish export. This shows that if Jaroslaw Kaczynski decides to end this relation with the
European union it will become unsustainable and lose most of its trade and could lead to
exporting to other countries outside Europe.
Link with globalisation: Poland’s history has played a major role in how its economy
functions today. The trade boom has brought unexpected benefits to other parts of the
economy as well, For example, some businesses that did well in wholesale trade have
readdressed part of their resources into areas like manufacturing, construction, or retail and
other services. Furthermore, as employees have learned more about business and have
gained knowledge with how decisions are made in a market economy, they have developed
new skills for operating successfully independently or being productive for other owners.