Poland is now in the Western sphere of influence and it is not in decay. A weak case can be made for Ireland but it’s harder to extract effects of tax haven status. But Poland certainly. Going to be a higher income populace than the UK soon at this rate.
The US is unusual as a federation. Some parts decline, others rise. I think it’s resilient. And every time something goes wrong, America pulls out a magic new technology. We will see if R&D will carry the day again.
And I was in Serbia lately, and while it was not as developed as NW-EU, nobody there described it as decaying (and many said they experiences decay when living in western nations over the past 2 decades).
Controversial proposals like Chat control are often pushed by hard lobby through the current eu presidency state because of their possition. It is likely that if Denmark wasn't heading eu at the time they would have little to do with Chat control. Also likely they were one of the more resilient countries to propose this.
Some people still don't have a clue that it is the almost the entirety of EU member countries in Europe that are rotten and are not doing particularly well.
The only country in Europe that is the exception is Norway which is not part of the EU.
With OP postulating that it is to enable corruption, and a sub-reply affirming that it is therefore the trait of a country in decay, bringing in Serbia as a counter-example is hilarious.
Serbia ranks 116th in the corruption perception index, Germany 10th. (Lower is better)
Corruption perception lags actual corruption. Countries that are becoming more corrupt are perceived as less corrupt. Countries that are becoming less corrupt are perceived as more corrupt.
>And I was in Serbia lately, and while it was not as developed as NW-EU, nobody there described it as decaying (and many said they experiences decay when living in western nations over the past 2 decades)
Yeah, a lot of the western countries that aren't wealthy enough to afford the luxury of indulging in absurd farcical politics and policies over the past 40yr are doing pretty decent.
Why limit yourself to western countries? In fact, why limit it to countries at all? Isn't it the most popular trope of all time to decry the state of today and romanticise yesterday? People have "not been wanting to work anymore" for at least 150 years, things were always better in the olden days, people don't make 'em like they used to, etm.
There's very little value in a statement like yours. It's a truism that has never been correct.
So are you just repeating the parent's flawed argument? Maybe you should see what that comic looks like extrapolated out to 2026: "yo on god writing be dead, frfr no cap <100 emoji> <fire emoji>"
How far back do we take it? In pre-historic times, did people crawl accross the ground to better enjoy it?
There's little correlation between people complaining about something being better in the good old days, and it actualli being better. Not for no reason is "rose-tinted glasses" an expression.
Maybe the other western countries are equally infertile, but just allowed many immigrants in (which counts are population expansion) that also have more children on average.
How are Japan and Korea holing out? They are further down the infertility down-spiral.
Mind you that the names top these lists in spite of usually being present in there in multiple spelling versions. E.g. if all different spelling versions of Muhammad were combined it would top the Dutch statistics as well.
That's because Muslims have their naming concentrated on a single name so much that anywhere you have a sizable number of Muslims, the most popular name in that place is Mohammed, even though most people aren't named Mohammed.
We should be asking why Muslims avoid Warsaw. That's odd.
The very consumerism that has made it materially wealthy has fucked up its citizens' priorities. Indeed, because the wealth differential over the last 30 years is as steep as it is - and because people are generally petty - it actually creates a perverse incentive to prioritize wealth accumulation over family life just to "keep up". You don't want the Joneses to outdo you. You don't want to seem shabbier.
So, maybe rapid growth combined with consumerist impulses is a deadly combination for a society. If only rapid growth were combined with healthy and wise priorities...
In context of the article, the economic performance is hardly relevant. The authoritarian forces are still strong in Poland, their institutional damage persistent.
Im really happy for Poland for its growing economy. (though it has the same challenges as Germany roughly speaking)
But You can't just deny the political problems. Propably some Americans do it - to cope with Trump who is worser than any PiS president. Poland has the EU as democratic layer but US with Trump doesnt have it.
Yeah, I am rooting for Poland, but it's simply not a shining example of democratic integrity.
> Poland has the EU as democratic layer but US with Trump doesnt have it.
I mean, let's see. The US thought checks and balances would hold, but they didn't, and the EU didn't prevent Hungary and Poland to slip into authoritarian dynamics to begin with. It's not exactly the legal body drawing the latter two back to change, but economic benefits. And Germany also suffers the same untested myth of "checks and balances", which really assumes some political decency. And no legal construct considered bazillionaire tech bros playing god with our dopamine receptors.
We all shouldn't take democracy for granted. I hope we all start to see the real enemy of the people and find agreement on what's actually important right now. Luckily, causal relations are becoming evident for everyone to see in this critical time. Now people need to start seeing.
I really hope Europe's citizens find unity, a shared identity and a renewed lust for democracy. Quite frankly, here in this libertarian club the EU regulations are not particularly popular, but for me the EU laws are mostly positive and I am a huge fan of the whole thing.
Economic growth is not the kind that's being referred to. I think Germany is also economically growing? It doesn't matter, they are still decaying in most ways.
The Americans who fetishize Poland do it because of their concept of it being 'racially pure' while having a growing economy. They don't particularly care about Ukrainians because Americans don't recognize any racial or ethnic difference between Ukrainians and Poles.
The US is unusual as a federation. Some parts decline, others rise. I think it’s resilient. And every time something goes wrong, America pulls out a magic new technology. We will see if R&D will carry the day again.