Assessment of public finance condition in Poland: myths and reality

In the paper, I present arguments in support of the proposition that opinions prognosticating a break-down of Poland.s public finance on the threshold of the 21st century are highly exaggerated and little credible. At the same time, I propose another approach to the problem of public finance crisis, differing from those hitherto used. The presently dominating approach takes into account above all the interests of the financial markets, while paying only limited attention to the level and scope of the needs supplied from the public funds. The proposed modification of the approach consists in looking at the condition of the public finance fromthe point of view of the addressee and subject of this finance, i.e. the citizen. Such an approach permits to put forward the proposition that the public finance crisis in Poland has consisted in a substantial drop since 1990, and especially over the last years, in the level and scope of supplying the social needs by means of public funds. As opposed, for example, to the budget disequilibrium that usually assumes a cyclical nature, the thus defined public finance crisis entails consequences that are perceptible not only to-day but, more importantly, also in the remote perspective. For to-day, they mean deprivation of a part of the population of access to public values; for the future, a slower general progress of the country, losses in the human capital resources, weakening of the country.s international competitive position. In the concluding part of the paper, I ascertain that in the fiscal policy the losses from growing public debt always are retrievable, whereas shortsighted decisions enforcing at any price the dogma of public finance equilibrium can bring about irreparable losses in the country.s human development.