patrick.net

Soo, Pat, if your country was invaded by genocidal fucks, would you send your wife across the border in the $50K car you had at the moment or you'd stop at some lot to exchange it for a beat-up 30 y.o. Corolla? I mean, only poor people can flee the invading hordes, so one must pretend to be poor, right?Or what exactly thar car comment was implying?

I mean that the refugees here do not seem particularly desperate.

Btw, one reason Krakow has so many beautiful young women is that there are many universities here. I didn't know that earlier.

Polish people also seem to use a lot more perfume and cologne than Americans.

Patrick says

I mean that the refugees here do not seem particularly desperate.

You are used to
seeing economical migrants here in the US claiming they are "refugees". If people are not economical migrants but are fleeing an actual hot war, why should they all seem to be desperate? Some surely are, but affluent people flee from wars too. It's not like Soviet bombs can tell rich from poor and spare the former...

War is always used as an opportunity to go after people who were not with the ones in power. Wouldn't be surprised if the anti-Zelensky faction left early. But really anyone with money who wasn't in on the grift.

What's the primary style of beer in Poland? Or the most popular?

It seems like lagers are very popular.

But I've been here on only a few days so I don't really know.

GNL says

Patrick says

I have to admit that there are tons of really hot Polish women

You lucky bastard. Send some nudes.

A lot of them do not wear bras. It's hard not to look, but I'm with my wife so I try not to.

Booger says

Patrick says

Everyone who could challenge Nazi power was systematically killed

Everyone who could challenge Communist power was systematically killed.

You are right. Them too.

Everyone here is aware that the Russians killed all the officers in the Polish army, the massacre at Katyn. 25,000 people.

And no one was ever held to account.

Traffic is horrible in Krakow, even in the middle of the day. Don't bother trying to drive anywhere.

Nowhere to park either.

I just saw a gay flag, first one.

Patrick says

You are right. Them too.

Everyone here is aware that the Russians killed all the officers in the Polish army, the massacre at Katyn. 25,000 people.

And no one was ever held to account.

Every country engages in war crimes.

How many people killed in Nagasaki and Hiroshima? Neither city had any military value.

My family oriented aunt is Polish. She is married to my uncle, who is a surgeon and an asshole with regard to how he treats his family members. Tell your relatives that we are proud of their immigration officials.

I just saw someone wearing a mask.

Just one person, no one else among all the people in Krakow.

From my experience, lager would be the most common beer type.

12oz portions are also laughable there.

It could be seasonal though. Lagers are great summer beers. Winter I'd bet on something stronger and darker.

mell says

That's not true. Standard of living in many German, Swiss or Austrian cities is magnitudes better than in the US. These are not exceptions, they are becoming the norm. Asia is not far behind and will overtake the US if its stays on the given path. I agree that esp. European nations do aid to their own downfall with unfettered mass immigration etc, but the US is currently declining faster under xiden, no doubt about it, esp. since leftoids have taken a foothold in most big cities and the still nice touristy rural areas. If you are single maybe the US still wins out, but if you're raising a family it's far behind already.

Meanwhile, on Planet Reality:

Euro zone economy grew JUST 6% over the past 15 years.

US grew 82%.

By 2035, the gap between the US and EU will be as large as that between Japan and Ecuador is today.

But hey! I am sure Ecuador has some nice cities too.

That will happen when you attempt to print your way out of a recession... But the Euro is doing no better, as in Europe the bailouts are by country, not bank..

Patrick says

I just saw someone wearing a mask.

Just one person, no one else among all the people in Krakow.

Did you point and laugh?

Patrick says

I just saw someone wearing a mask.

My wife and I have gone on to Vienna, Austria. I've seen two people wearing masks now, one in full hijab. Lots of Arabs here, and even more Turks.

The Turks finally did succeed in invading Vienna.

I may have missed it above but what all countries are you visiting?

Patrick says

I have to admit that there are tons of really hot Polish women, far more than I expected. Much better than the US.

For sure not many hot Polish women in the US.

@Patrick

Are there White males in commercials?

This doesn't make sense because unlike Europe, the US sent all their industrial operations - entire factories, the equipment, including the foundation bolts to China.

So, where is this higher GDP coming from?

The_Deplorable says

So, where is this higher GDP coming from?

Creative Accounting and Financialization. Although in fairness, we do have the vast majority of IP still.

SunnyvaleCA says

Patrick says

I have to admit that there are tons of really hot Polish women, far more than I expected. Much better than the US.

For sure not many hot Polish women in the US.

Few polish people period on the west coast, many in NY/Chicago/Midwest

The_Deplorable says

This doesn't make sense because unlike Europe, the US sent all their industrial operations - entire factories, the equipment, including the foundation bolts to China.

So, where is this higher GDP coming from?

We didn't sent all of our industrial operations, just most our lower tier and a lot of our middle tier industries. Our high tier mostly stayed and grew.

High tier = higher value. That means higher GDP.

But industrial development in and of itself doesn't matter when it comes to GDP. If it did, then the heavily industrialized USSR would have been a juggernaut 2-3 times higher GDP than us.

What matters is the value you produce by what you do. Sure, manufacturing can deliver a lot of GDP...but not as much if is constrained by government. And Europe's economy is stifled by regulation/welfare state bs compared to us. As we are compared to Asia.

But demographic collapse in Asia is putting an end to that disparity and in Europe it will just kill whatever little growth prospects they have. 40% of the EU population will be retirees. China will be just as bad or worse. Russia and Ukraine worse of all.

India has the best prospects and is geopolitically sitting pretty sweet, but for the corruption and caste bullshit.

BayArea says

I may have missed it above but what all countries are you visiting?

Poland, Austria, Czecia

AmericanKulak says

Patrick

Are there White males in commercials?

I will look.

In Austria :

In the Wielicka salt mine near Krakow :



And this is way the hell underground.

Center of Tuliszków. My great great grandfather's house is on the far left and he planted the tree with the scar in the center.

Trollhole says

India has the best prospects and is geopolitically sitting pretty sweet.

Why? Help me understand this.

Patrick says

AmericanKulak says

Patrick

Are there White males in commercials?

I will look.

I watched some TV. The majority are white people including white men, but they frequently include blacks and Turks.

The_Deplorable says

This doesn't make sense because unlike Europe, the US sent all their industrial operations - entire factories, the equipment, including the foundation bolts to China.

Agreed. It's irrelevant as GDP alone is mostly worthless without other measures. I say mostly because countries with a reasonably high GDP tend to do better, but it's meaningless once you reach a certain threshold. China is 2nd largest, but certainly way down in quality of life. Same for the US comparison to northern/Middle European countries. GDP per capital is roughly the same, but quality of life in their cities simply beats 80% of US cities. This is true for Switzerland, Germany and parts of Austria for sure, not necessarily sourther or eastern Europe. Demographics are also not really significant as you can sew with Japan, one of the GDP powerhouses and high standard of living. These graphs alone are meaningless.

Trollhole says

Euro zone economy grew JUST 6% over the past 15 years.

US grew 82%.

This is meaningless, clearly you haven't traveled. It doesn't mean the US isn't a great country, but in terms of avg. quality of life it's behind. GDP alone becomes meaningless at some point. With deficit spending it can go infinite. Doesn't translate into better quality of life.

https://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings.jsp

Vienna is about twice as expensive as Krakow.

We had a far higher quality hotel in Krakow for about $120 per night, the Grand Ascot:

https://grandascot.pl/en/

Patrick says

Poland, Austria, Czecia

No Slovakia? Did you do any hiking, perhaps in the Tatras?

mell says

Doesn't translate into better quality of life.

Spot on. You can have a rising GDP and a declining quality of life, for sure.

Patrick says

We had a far higher quality hotel in Krakow for about $120 per night, the Grand Ascot:

https://grandascot.pl/en/

I didn't see any mention of parking on their website.

mell says

This is meaningless, clearly you haven't traveled. deficit spending it can go infinite.

Seems that someone is smoking the same 'quality of life' rationalization crack pipe that the Europeans have engaged in when faced with this ugly reality.

And deficit spending has nothing to do with it, either. Just another canard thrown out by the economically ignorant.

And let's cut through the 'well travelled snobbery' BS (a virtue signalling tactic typical of the Left) by asking the following question:

Tell me, you live in Europe or in America? In other words, do you live in a high GDP economy or a virtually non-existant GDP one?