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Comment by spwa4 | Hacker News Reader

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You've some wrong assumption. One is that you are wrong about Poland / Greece wages. In 2026 Polish worker actually earns more than a Greece worker for the same role. Something like 25% more in Poland

Also Polands power grid is quite old and hasn't kept pace with demand. The grid operator last year had to reject thousands of requests for new connections

> So yeah ... best of luck if you're a car factory worker in France or Germany.

If it makes you feel any better the Polish car factory worker will probably lose their job to a Chinese car factory worker.

> best of luck if you're a car factory worker in France or Germany

You mean the ones who fought tooth and nail for comfy jobs within unions with barely no way to fire anyone? And now are wondering where the jobs and the money went?

Tesla workers rejected IG Metall as the union of choice for their factory because all they want to know is send faxes and keep companies wrapped around in red tape like a mummy

Actually most of the jobs went back to Germany, just ask US car workers. Where the company headquarters are mattered more than those unions. I guess that's why Trump is angry. German management are just not respecting the almighty god of capitalism.

(of course the US has been sabotaging all car sales with the only potential exception of Tesla and Trump has not changed)

That’s the thing, Poland got wealthier because it became an extension of German industry, with some IT stuff thrown in. Czechia would have also been in the world’s top 20 had they had a larger population, as they’re even more dependent on said German industry.

Well, yeah. I get that being the stupid backwater of a huge capitalist union is still better than communism. However, it's not working out so well for (now mostly ex-)factory workers in Germany.

Entire cities are emptying because of this. Leaving the old behind, of course.

> However, it's not working out so well for (now mostly ex-)factory workers in Germany.

I fully agree with this, the whole EU enlargement/post-Cold War thing is insanely complicated from a societal pov, there's no silver bullet, for ever positive you can instantly find a negative just as big etc etc, that's why I find this obsession with EU funds quite besides the point, i.e. because the reality on the ground was, still is, in fact, a lot more complicated.

For example in our (Romania's) case EU accession came with even a larger increase in PPP value compared to Poland, but that also came with a huge, huge depopulation problem (neighbouring Bulgaria suffers from the same thing), which cannot be put into PPP numbers. Like I said, positives and negatives.

So many false claims in one post. Impressive levels of delusion.

Don't know about the other points, but 2 is spot on. Germany now has the most expensive electricity in the EU[1].

[1] https://www.globalelectricity.org/electricity-prices-by-coun...

> Germany leads Europe—and the world among major economies—with residential electricity prices reaching €0.3835 per kWh (approximately $0.41/kWh) in the first half of 2025, according to Eurostat data. This represents a 34% premium above the EU average of €0.2872/kWh.

Since you're citing prices from early 2025: In the second half of 2025, electricity prices for household consumers in the EU (expressed in purchasing power standards (PPS) per 100 kWh) were highest in:

Romania (49.52 PPS per 100 kWh) Czechia (38.65) Poland (37.15)

Lowest in:

Malta (14.09) Hungary (15.10) Finland (18.77)

Residential electricity prices in Poland are 145.01% of the world average electricity price and 98.14% of the average price in Europe.