2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumRomney praises Poland, where they have universal healthcare and free higher education ...
Romney Praises Polands Economy, Where Government Plays A Larger Role Than The U.S.Visiting Poland for the final leg of his gaffe-filled trip abroad, Romney praised how the nation has lifted the heavy hand of government to become one of the fastest growing economies in Europe.
The problem with Romneys speech, however, is that the the Polish government plays a larger role in its economy than the U.S. government plays here.
The Associated Press noted that the reality of Polish government spending doesnt match Romneys rhetoric:
While its true that Poland is one of Europes fastest-growing economies and boasts dynamic entrepreneurs, Romneys depiction of Poland as a place of small government is debatable. Even 23 years after throwing off a communist command economy, the Polish government continues to have a strong presence in peoples lives: it gives women $300 for each baby they have, doubling that sum for poor families; it fully funds state university educations; and it guarantees health care to all its 38 million citizens.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/31/617791/romney-polandgovernment-role/
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I cannot stop laughing today ... it has just been one of those news days ....
Vox Moi
(546 posts)Mitt seems to be quite liberal in his praise of any government that is not our government.
jpbollma
(552 posts)Poland still has many facets of socialism that have wide support.
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)The guy is an embarrassment, perhaps even worse than the shrub.
Igel
(35,356 posts)Take the free university education.
Slots are limited. They set up the budget and that decides how many slots there are. You get a stipend, but if you fail you lose your stipend and your slot. That can be a good thing, because then there's a slot for another student. Academic probation is for wimps. So much kinder that way.
When you start university you apply to and are admitted to your major. Changing majors is a bear, because you have to have taken the right parts of the right test and scored high enough to be allowed into the new major. If there's a slot. It's easier if your new(ly desired) major is in the same "faculty." Which is to say, it's probably possible.
Don't score high enough on one test, you don't go on to a university- or institute-track high school curriculum, you're strictly what I guess is called "CATE" in the US. Don't score high enough on another test, you don't make the cut off for admission to the university you want to--or perhaps to the program. You can try retaking the test again next year. You don't keep your scores. And a couple of years out of high school it's hard to both work and continue to do well on the tests.
What I did like was having the women at the apteki be authorized to diagnose and hand out things that here might be OTC but would probably be by prescription only in the US. Good thing, too. Doctors aren't highly paid. They're not always easy to see. Our host's husband was a doctor. Our host was a professor.
But there is a baby bonus. Their fertility rate dropped and rather than rely on immigration--not exactly a pressing problem--they decided to pay for babies. Rather a late Soviet idea.
Didn't it use to have a larger population?
MindMover
(5,016 posts)to get an education, gets one without going into debt the rest of your life and you do not have to worry about bankrupting your family if you get sick. Seems to me it is a lot better than what I have...which is student debt and left wondering if I get sick which name I will use, so that my family is not held accountable ...