Sunday, June 14, 2015

State capitalism

Adam Janeczek is a pig farmer located in the village of Wyborow, a couple hours east of Warsaw.

What was the situation like 23 years ago here at the farm?

If we're talking about the economy, before 1989 there was money but no goods in the stores. And today there are goods but no money. It's the reverse. In 1988, I left the country for the first time. I was in Norway. And there was a store with machines, tractors. I thought stupidly, "Damn, they have all these products but no one to buy them!" And now that's the situation with us too. It's a question of money…

…. When the changes took place and firms collapsed, it was precisely the farmers who suffered. And later it was obvious who was opening things up here: various city slickers who had capital. And we knew all about them. For a farmer in Poland, during those years of Communism or socialism or whatever you call it, there wasn't general poverty. Farming was normal: food was produced normally. We had private producers in Poland. That's why I say that there wasn't anything new with these changes, with privatization. All the time we were working privately.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-feffer/pig-farming-in-poland_b_7577282.html

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