Meanness and extravagance on the map
Recently,
in Europe, we have to deal with the
economic
crisis. One of its sources is
extraordinary
extravagance. Do you think it is a
coincidence
that the crisis is the most developed in
the South of Europe?
It
seems not. For years the people in the South
were
acting spontaneously.
The
best example is Greece. After
dramatic
collapse of the Greek economy
there
was sympathy and solidarity in Poland
with
Greeks, but when the Polish media announced
information how they lived, our mood
completely
changed. Convenience and privileges
that
they had had for many years were absurd and shocking for us.
The
most curious benefits mentioned were: bonuses for hand
washing
(420 euros / month), bonuses for being
punctual at work (310 euros / month)
punctual at work (310 euros / month)
or
bonuses for using companies' canteen, most of
which
are... free (120 euros / month).
the Bonus for hand washing is higher than a monthly
salary
of many Poles despite the fact that
prices
in Greece are comparable to ours!
Moreover,
in Greece pensioners have most medicines for free, which for
Polish
pensioners seems unbelievable. As you can
see,
stereotypes showing people of the South as
stress
free and not very responsible has some
basics.
Should we help them? It's an important
question
for the members of the European Union.
A
nation that has completely different opinion
is
Scotland. They are depicted as
stingy. Their economic
stingy. Their economic
situation
is neither positive nor negative in
comparison
with other European countries. We
should
pay our attention to people who have
contact
with Scots. Did they confirm Scots'
stereotype?
I know a lot of travellers' and
tourists'
opinions and I have never heard about it . It's interesting that the Polish soliders who
were
stationed during World War II in Scotland had an opinion on that.
They often emphasized the warmth of
the
hosts, as well as their generosity (
especially of the ladies :) ),
So how
come they are considered to be mean?
Is it a gossip spread by Englishmen who in fact are
very
stingy?
In my opinion crisis in South Europe is not only a economic problem but also a social. I think people there became more lazy than before crisis. Mainly in Greece they built big social system and they started to think that government will give them almost everything. People are angry, but they forgot that they have to work if they what to built a strong country and in a next election choose the better politician . I won't talking about Scotch because I don't know any details about their society.
ReplyDeleteI never had been in Scotland, so I don't know any details about their society - as a Radosław. Last time I was watching the film Braveheart and Scots seem to be positive and friendly people.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that we should help with money for country after crisis. Poland have big debet and we should think about our economic and help poor people in Poland. If we would be rich country, we could help other countries, but we aren't. Crisis in Greece need firstly inteligent people, who rebuild economy and secondly money
I can't say a lot about this topic and I have never been in Scotland. I don't know how Scots behave and if the Scots stereotype is to some extent true. I agree with Karolina and her opinion about giving 'helping hand' in the form of money. It is not our responsibility but than we pay for it. We have also our problems and the government should take care of Polish society. I think that many people are a bit angry about this situations and that's how almost every country give money to the country in crisis.
ReplyDeleteThe crisis is apparent in many countries, especially in Greece or Spain. It is true that the Greek people were living too lavishly and this led to such a difficult situation in this country.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how to answer the question "Are the Scots mean and stingy?" because I've never been to Scotland and I don't know any Scot. I've also never heard about any stereotype about Scots.
People in the South generally like siestas and suppers with wine until late night hours. This may mean that they don't like working too much. Unfortunately I'm not an expert of social, financial and political matters so I can't say if it means anything or not. I've never been to Scotland so I can't say anything about them either. The only stereotype about Scots I know is about their disability to play tennis.
ReplyDeleteI can't say anything about Scotland, but today was funeral of great leader. This pearson said: "There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers’ money." We should remember, when we were poor and many people worked very hard to earn some money to survive, they had siesta and loans from other countries. Now they should first fix what they broke. I have hope this same situation will never apears in Poland, but our democracy is younger then Greece... Thanks Good we have some brakes of public dept in Constitution, but when politician want to spend taxpayers money or take more loans his invention is like stupidy- unlimited.
ReplyDeleteI agree, that now we have to deal with the economic crisis in Europe. I can say nothing about Scotland. I've never been interested in their culture, history and the the latest news about this country. It is incredible for me, that the Bonus for hand washing is higher than a monthly salary of many Poles!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Radoslaw. Crisis in Greece is not fram economics reasons but social. Greece is social country and Greeks use that. They dont't want go to job and pay taxes. Greeks have to pay tax for their houses but they dont't have to do it when their house isn't finished so in every house in Greece something is missing it is one of egzample. I know about Scotland anything and I thing that not many people in Poland know abaut it anything.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the most of the comments expressed here and with the ideas about Greek and south countries society (probably because I'm from Spain). It's not true that we are lazy (we invented siesta and we have dinner later than in many countries, but I assure you that people work like in the rest of Europe), this is a cliche like many others, for example people say that French are rude people, or that German are rigid people, but it's not true. We can't generalize and say that people from an entire country is lazy, or whatever other bad thing.
ReplyDeleteI chose Poland for doing my Erasmus because I though that here I would find a very different culture that in Spain, but I have realised that we aren't so different, and the same happened to me when I met people from many other countries.
In Spain, politicians are trying to blame citizens for the crisis, they say we have been living "above our possibilities", that is, wasting more money that we had. This can be true in some cases, but in my opinion the main reason of the crisis is the speculation done by banks, big companies and some people that were focus in earn money no matter how.
I'm not an expert in economy (in fact I know very little about it) but I have heard that if countries like Greece, Portugal, Italy or Spain collapse, the rest of European Union could collapse too, so I think it's important to help these countries, not only because of solidarity, which I see it's not very important here, but for prevent possible collapses in the rest of countries too.
Finally, I don't know nothing about Scots, so I can't answer your questions.
I'm not interested political causes especially about it what is going in Greece or Scotland but I was amused when I read first sections about wasted money in Greece(but on the other hand for Greeks it wasn't wasted money). Obviously as a country which participate in EU we should help countries in infirmity. A country consists of population who suffer because of various errors their policy. What could I say about Scots and stereotypes about them? Every person should have own opinion about another nations. We can't direct something which may be untruth. let's be subjective
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about European cultures in general, mostly (and sadly) I know much of generalisation stated in comments above. I don't like generalisation and try to have open mind about pretty much everything, but my opinion can be biased by lack of knowledge about cultures and economics in general. I know only about mathematical concepts behind economy in very general sense. But going back to the presentation: like many others, I have no previous experience with people from Scotland. I did not know about any stereotype other than 'having a snake in their wallets', meaning that their stinginess just what characterise them fully in every aspect of life. Obviously I don't believe in such nonsense, regardless of fact that I did not met anyone from Scotland.
ReplyDeleteAs of people in England, I have been in London for about a month during junior high school for an exchange and I have many great memories with them. Most other people were rather unpleasant mostly because of quite wide bias of englishmen toward poles. Apparently for quite a lot of them people from poland are uneducated thieves and are more like a parasite then people. Still, they have no problem with taking polish people to work for them. I also noticed that a lot of people in London who are native to England were living from governmental handouts and additional social benefits, sometimes for YEARS without actual work. Just by renting for high price part of their home to foreigners while collecting some sort of help from government. This kind of behaviour could be actual cause of any crisis in England.
Now I feel bad because I think that people in england project their vices onto other nations ;).
I don't think that people in any country are particularly lazy. But many people will want to have more luxurious life, therefore if there is a possibility to gain additional money they probably don't hesitate. But if too much people do such a thing and spending is not properly governed... there is possible problem of any economic crisis.
But it is just my opinion, and I don't state in any actually provoking way.
ReplyDeleteI had never been to Scotland, so I do not know much about this country. Nowadays, many countries need to cope with many economical issues and crisis in Europe. I can tell a lot of situation in Scotland. I've never been interested in their culture, history and the the latest news about this country. The fact that the Bonus for hand washing is higher than a monthly salary of polish people is incomprehensible and strange. And ,finally I agree with Przemek, most of polish people do know anything about Scotland and vice versa.
I think that opinions about other nations- if there are, for example, stingy- are often only stereotypes. These negatives or complimentary feelings are dependent on various causes- culture, friends opinion, own experiences, etc. Then a group of people has more comfortable living conditions, more benefits we can be jealous of; when other people have the same problems or worse conditions- we are more sympathetic and think more positively about them.
ReplyDeleteThe solution of the crisis in south Europe is quite easy to find. The society on Greece and Spain live out of their financial ability. They have a problem with paying a taxes for the state, they by too much luxury thinks, cars, houses, most of them have a mortgage credit. Unemployment in Spain is the highest in the younger part of society is about 20% but they don’t work in physical jobs after studies, lowest salary is a problem for them. They should change their attitude for the salary and job.
ReplyDeleteI had never been to Scotland and I don't know what exactly the situation is. In my opinion Greece has many problems because of bad economical system. They earn a lot of money. Moreover the pensioners have most medicines for free. People don't want working, they only want getting all the things for free and that's the reason about weaknes position in the world.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been in Scotland and I have no idea, why they are considered to be mean.
ReplyDeleteBut I think our opinions about Greece and all South countries are little bit unfair. These examples concerns only part of their society. Also in Poland are people, who get strange bonuses. And we shouldn't look at any country taking these group of people into account. Most of these money get politicians and their relatives. Of course, in Greece level of corruption and nepotism is unbelivable. But fact remains that dozens of people are just victims of elite's greed.
I think most of the countries are heaving social crisis which leads to economic crises. We want to have a lot of things but we don't want to work as much as we should. We are geting more and more spoiled. I used to work with scottish people and I don't find them mean.
ReplyDeleteAs for me if someone is living on higher level of welfare than his pocket can carry, he should pay for it. I mean - why shall i pay to rescue some South countries, if they are doing everything to waste their money?
ReplyDeleteI can't say anything about Scotish being mean because i've never been there.
We shouldn't help them. It looks like they had a huge party in last few years, but it wasn't for their money. So if they didn't care about future, why we should help them today? Because they will say that EU brought them to bankruptcy? who is going to believe that? They got what they deserved. UE should stop giving them money, maybe then they will start working honest. They had their chance and they threw it away.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion situation in Greece before crisis was pathological. Extravagant governments is one of the biggest reasons of the crisis in the south Europe countries. And it is hard for them to cut expenses because people became spoiled. I don't think that Scots are mean. It is a type of stereotype. They just distribute wisely. It is the best way to have no crisis and good inner situation.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGeneralization and stereotipical way of thinking leads us to biased opinions, but I think, there could be a grain of truth in many 'cliches', like Scottish people being stingy or Greeks extravagant. As someone said, financial aid for countries like Greese or Spain in patching their budget seems to be beneath our country possibilities, but the European Union is based on these countries, and there is a risk of collapsing it, so that members of EU are in some way urged to cooperate and keep the union going in the name of principle that when one part of it is not working properly, antoher part try to help it function better, by means of financial burdens in this case.
DeleteAs far as Scottland is concerned, I don't have and experiences with Scottish culture and peple, so I cannot evaluate them, but as I mentioned at the beginning, nothing comes out of nothing, thus it could be a bit of true in Scottish being mean, but to avoid generalization i cannot agree with this statement.
I have always thought that very few things should be available for free - there will come the day when you or someone else will have to pay for it. This is the best example.
ReplyDeleteMany people simply can't understand that if you can't afford it, you can't have it - taking loans endlessly is not a solution.
Some state that "it's all because of the rich" - not really, they are rich because they are stingy, not opposite. In contrast to people who can't manage their money properly.
I don't think people in South Europe like to spend money more than anyone else. It could have happened to everyone, and even in Poland we have a goverment doing silly things (Remember how much money the people who designed the Stadium got? And it was opened late and the roof was broken...).
ReplyDeleteI think Scots are seen as mean because of how their way of speaking sounds. They have a very harsh accent, and maybe that's why people think they are aggresive.
I've once read that in the medieval times, and even in World War I and II, Scottish people were considered brave warriors, and often fought in the front of the battle. So maybe everyone thought they are fierce not only in war?