More to eat, but less heat

This week’s Polityka, Poland’s favored news weekly, presented some fascinating data on how the market economy has transformed the purchasing power of the average Pole’s salary.
The paper shows what could be purchased (with an average pay check) in 1990, i.e. at the beginning of the “great transformation,” compared with 1995, and 2003.

It appears that the average pay check can now cover many more kilo of sugar, meat, chocolate (the staples?!) but fewer hours of heat, fewer tickets to the movies, and fewer doctors’ visits than in 1990.

If you’re itching to travel, Poland’s prices remain comparatively lower than those in the States or Germany. Take a look at this table. Everything from apples to a Big Mac are just a fraction of what the cost would be in the US. Of course, the average salary (in Euro, gross, first line in the table) is also a fraction of that in the US, but just about four times that of a Russian.

My advice? Fill up on the Big Macs in Poland, but get sick when you return back home. Unless you’re one of the 40% under/uninsured in the States, in which case you should take a detour to France or England until you recover.