AP news recently published an article about Poland’s economy.  

Titled “Poland is now among the world’s 20 largest economies. How it happened”, the article can be found at “https://apnews.com/article/poland-economy-growth-g20-gdp-26fe06e120398410f8d773ba5661e7aa”.

In 2025, Poland edged out Switzerland to become the 20th-biggest GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the world.  That list includes (in descending order) the USA, China, Germany, Japan, India, the UK, France, Italy, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, South Korea, Australia, Turkey, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and now, Poland.  All of these countries have a total GDP of more than one trillion dollars (as determined by the World Monetary Fund).

That is a pretty big jump from the poverty and shambles of Poland’s economy that prevailed until the downfall of Communism in 1990.  

Other ex-Communist countries have likewise improved to varying degrees, but, as the article notes, “corrupt practices and oligarchs” have definitely had harmful impacts on other ex-Communist countries.

Factors that resulted in a good foundation for Poland’s ultimate success included “rapidly building a strong institutional framework for business”, “independent courts, an anti-monopoly agency to ensure fair competition, and strong regulation to keep troubled banks from choking off credit.”

This was a consequence of the fact that “Poland downloaded the institutions and the rules of the game, and even some cultural norms that the West spent 500 years developing.”  

Half of Poland’s young people now have a college degree.  Dictatorships thrive on ignorance; but that free exchange of ideas virtually guarantees that the improvements in the political and commercial environment will be maintained for future generations to enjoy.  

Freedom and capitalism – “capitalism” is freedom applied to trade – are necessary for economic improvement.  The degree of freedom and the degree that impediments and limitations on that freedom are eliminated directly impacts economic well-being.  Those words are not isolated and unrelated; they are tightly inter-related.  

The result?  In hard numbers, the individual Pole’s per capita GDP in 1990 was $6,730.  By 2025, that value was 55,340.  Freedom is not just ideas and talk.  It translates into good financial consequences as well.  

So even though China has a far-greater Gross Domestic Product, China’s personal GDP is only about $13,000 – less than a quarter of Poland’s.  By any measure, China has extremely limited freedoms – and its rulers go to great lengths to censor the knowledge of the population.

What is the point of bringing up questions of freedom and oppression in a discussion of finance?  

The answer is simple:  freedom generally for a population as a whole, brings with it substantial financial well-being.  Freedom and financial success are inseparable.

Scott Crosby
scott@scottschoice.com
www.scottschoice.com

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