Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Poland versus Russia - Economic Life Compared" video.

  1.  MrMajsterixx  Actually it does, having open access to the EU market offers a massive advantage to Poland and the eastern EU countries, it also entices a lot of investment, knowing that these countries have easy access to Western Europe. But what's really having the big impact is the reforms the EU pushes on these countries to reform and modernise, that in time develops the economic and political system to become modern, but it takes many decades, it also helps to create stability, just look at Hungary for instance, if they were not in the EU, they would be fast tracking into a system like what Russia is like, a dictatorship, in fact, Poland was heading that way, but constant pressure and checks and balances from the EU helped to get them back on track. The simple truth is, if you check all the eastern European countries that joined the EU, on average, they are doing much better than the eastern European countries that didn't join the EU, so clearly the EU is having a positive impact on them. As for Russia, they should be embarrassed with its economic performance, we are talking about a country that's blessed with so many natural resources and yet it's a poor country that only a few cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg have a decent quality of life that measures up to eastern EU standards, but go outside those cites and the quality of life drops off a cliff, so for a country with so many natural resources to still be performing poor, really shows poor mismanagement of the economy, and you can only imagine how much worse it would be if they didn't have any natural resources, basically, the eastern European countries that joined the EU are doing far better, whiles having far fewer natural resources, a big part of that is thanks to the EU putting them on the right track of democracy, a market economy and so on.
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  2. It really boils down to Poland moving westwards on why the quality of life is better in Poland, and it's not by chance, if you look at all the eastern European countries that joined the EU, they are on average doing much better than the countries that are not in the EU, with some doing better than others. Then we have Russia, which have a lot of natural resources, and yet the quality of life can only match some of the eastern European countries and even then, it's usually in big cities like Moscow or St Petersburg, for a country that is blessed with so much natural resources, they are doing really poor on the economic front when countries that are still developing in Eastern Europe that joined the EU are doing quite well whiles having far less natural resources, a big part of that is the EU, it's rules, laws and regulations that are having an impact on reforming these countries to become modern countries that eventually, eastern EU countries will be as well of as western countries. I also suspect with the war going on in Ukraine, that will over the long run have a negative impact on Russia, the war is costing them a fortune and the longer it drags on, the more costly it gets, it's a drag on the economy, which Putin has managed to shield the Russia people so far, but that won't last as the cost keeps building, and either way, the cost to the economy in economic terms, lives loss as well as people leaving the country, will have a long term negative impact on the Russian economy and people, as that is growth that's being pulled out of Russia.
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