this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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40 million people + communism.
Hate to break it to you but Poland is extremely not communist
Well, duh.
But it used to be behind the Iron Curtain.
None of the former Eastern Bloc countries are net contributors in this chart. Greece, Portugal, and Spain were also dictatorships not that long ago. Cyprus there's the whole Greek military Junta and Turkish invasion thing.
The only other net recipients are Malta (which doesn't receive much), and Luxemburg and Belgium. They host a lot of EU institutions.
East Germany
Love the former East Germany, lived there for a while, but it's still deprived even after the federal state pumping loads of money into it. I suspect West Germany's crumbling infrastructure is in part caused by the burden of absorbing East Germany.
But it's not an independent country, so it's hidden in these figures. Germany's had to shoulder that burden on its own.
Cost trillions. West Germany shouldered that burden, but West German companies also profited from it. Eg. not as if there were private East German companies to build motorways to western standards.
PiS combine socialist economics with one-party control of state institutions, so while their rule has technically not been communist, it has rhymed with it.
More authoritarian kleptocracy, communism is a misnomer.