The Syndicate

G-Man wrote:1) Did you do anything special for your birthday?

Nothing much, really. Met up for a fancy dinner with my family and had a chill day with a book and and a fancy cocktail with rum in the evening.

G-Man wrote:2) Are there any cultural birthday traditions in Poland?

Cake, family/friends meetings. Men get flowers for birthdays here as well as women. I don't really think it is much different.

We do, however have traditions that people on their 18th birthday get hit with a belt 18 times by other people for good luck. It's silly. :P

G-Man wrote:3) What was the best birthday present you ever received?

My cousin made and gave me a large painting depicting the neighborhood I grew up at for my 19th birthday last year. It's really nice, she does have skills. It still hangs in my living room.

Epignosis wrote:I thought most of IKEA's furniture was constructed in people's homes.

Well, I meant the parts.

G-Man wrote:What are personal and corporate tax rates like in Poland?

PIT brackets are 18% and 32%, however the second one is being paid by only about 1% of the populace. However, the income tax threshold is very low and equals to just 6% of an average monthly pay, therefore it is virtually impossible to be exempt from the tax even for the poorest people.

CIT is 19%, however the real issue is with businesses not receiving full VAT refunds and large costs of employing people legally. An employer is obliged to provide social insurance for every worker as well as pay special taxes for "free healthcare" which both are equal to about 40% of the actual pay. With the populace growing older, the system is getting less and less stable every year. Around 62% of the country's overall budget is already being used to keep the social insurance working. Meanwhile, there are legal loopholes for foreign corporations to avoid taxes at all while winning the competition for customers over local businesses, and that effectively transfers large money from the country abroad.

G-Man wrote:What kind of multiculturalism policies did your government turn its back on?

Basically, all of them. We don't get notable immigration from anywhere outside Ukraine/Belarus, both of which are culturally similar countries. Since the start of the Syrian War with ISIS, Poland bent over to German pressure and a few thousand migrants from the Middle East, however they didn't really want to stay here. After receiving asylum, they just all left to richer Western countries with an extensive system of social welfare. The current, conservative government pledged to veto any ideas of possible new migrant quotas for EU countries. The problem solved itself, I guess.

G-Man wrote:In America, the slave trade resulted in a sizable portion of the population being of African descent. Did Poland ever take part in slavery?

Poland was never influential anywhere in the world outside Europe even at its peak powers and did not participate in colonialism. I think the only slavery we ever had was that of prisoners of war from neighboring countries.

G-Man wrote:Are there sizeable minority populations in Poland? If so, what ethnicities and cultures are most prevalent?

We have about 20 officially recognized national and ethnic minorities, I think. None of them are of any real power, though. The largest population group is Germans, which constitute up to 10% of the general populace in some regions of the South. However, country-wise, they make up for less than 1% of all of country's citizens. Poland is actually one of the most homogeneous populations in the world alongside Japan and South Korea.

G-Man wrote:As an ignorant American, I know very little about Poland other than the cuisine is tasty and surnames sometimes defy Western phonetics. What are some things (agriculture, products, etc.) should I recognize Poland as a leader in?

Apples! We produce an export tonnes of apples, being the biggest exporter in Europe and fourth in the world. Poland also produces a lot of furniture, it is said that around 1/3th of all IKEA furniture was constructed here. Other than these two, a lot of household appliances and cars are manufactured and assembled in our country, however it's mostly for European exports.

Hello guys

1. A local mafia fanatic at my home forum, GTF, Roman a.ka Augustus brought it to the place. With the forum dying out at the time a bit, the game gained huge popularity. I started playing since the third instalment and later hosted GTF Mafia VI, XI and XVI.

2. My friend, Sig asked me to join a game, because apparently you guys urgently needed people. Also, I decided that I need some time in a different environment than GTF or ATRL, considering that the JTM atmosphere wasn't very good (sorry!) and I didn't really feel like coming back there.

3. I was a town vigilante. I generally like the idea of having the possibility to kill people I suspect of being mafia without needing to consult and persuade others. I also slightly prefer being town to being scum.

4. It seems pleasant and rather calm in spite of having a few games going on at the same time. Other than that, I don't know you guys that much yet. Sorry about that

5. It ain't very bad. Economically, it's getting better every year, however the growth is considerably slower compared to that of the West. Unfortunately, career perspectives here still ain't great so we have a few hundreds of thousands of people emigrating to richer, Western European or Nothern American nations for a better life.

The major problems aside of the brain drain is, in my opinion excessive taxation and the failure of many, previously state-owned companies due to them being privatised and scrapped down by the new foreign owners who had their space in the market replaced with imported products. These neocolonial practices are sadly still not widely recognised by the populace as a factor that contributes to their wealth and no effective measures to build strong local enterpreneuerships are being taken.

Other than that, I would say a lot of people have the homo sovieticus mentality which we inherited from our previous political system. These, usually older people, but sometimes it spreads onto the youth, believe that it's some kind of central authority that creates wealth and prosperity for people and frankly, don't understand capitalism. Therefore, are only capable of working full-time for someone, not knowing how to create something themselves or build up funds.

A huge pro of Poland is the security levels. According to OECD, Poland is one of the safest countries in Europe to live in and visit right now. My country is rather conservative and our government opposes the failed policies of multiculturalism, which turned out to cause more problems for the Western countries than profits.