Barbara Socha: The demographic crisis is the biggest barrier to Poland's development

Information Agency: Barbara Socha, president of the Foundation Institute of Generation: “Our civilization has always been based on family. present it is said that cultural changes have gone so far that the household ceases to be that it is not apparent for young people to start a family, and secondly it is nothing attractive.”

Conversation with Barbara Socha, president of the Board of the Foundation Institute of Generation.

Why should “Demography, Fool” be more crucial than “The Economy, Fool?”

Barbara Socha: This is truly the question of the biggest challenges facing us. I think that present more and more people have no uncertainty that demographic or broader demographic problems will be our biggest improvement barrier.

Economy – we can manage it if we have a society that will drive it. If we have employees, if we have consumers. The economy is so secondary. If we can imagine that by the end of this century, and thus in little than 80 years, Poles will be only 14 million, what will be our economical potential? What will our gross home product be? What investments can we afford? What kind of army can we afford? What will be our future?

Almost the full planet is facing a demographic crisis. Is there a way to reverse this trend?

Barbara Socha: There are no irreversible things in our past – I mean cultural issues. Our civilization has always been based on family. present it is said that cultural changes have come so far that the household ceases to be that it is not apparent for young people to start a household and, secondly, not attractive. More and more people live in single lifestyles. Being single became fashionable.

However, a fewer or more years will pass and more and more people will feel the effects of following specified a life choice alternatively than another. I think that knowing that this is associated with many problems and that it does not necessarily should be a happy choice for life will consequence in reflection, which, in my opinion, we already see in any countries that have taken place in this further than Poland.

It is about the alleged “me decade” culture, or “the decade of me”: I focus on my goals, we talk about self-development, self-fulfillment, and at the end there is loneliness. Many countries are on this way ahead of us present and already see its effects. I'm watching a retreat.

If we look at the fresh American administration today, the approach to social problems is fundamentally different – not only with respect to the democrats and the erstwhile administration, but besides with respect to the earlier Republican governments. This is another generation that is aware of social problems arising from certain public policies that are indifferent to the household or even anti-family.

This results in a very advanced level of focus on household issues – at the level of the American administration. delight note that this effect is already seen, for example in the fact that business turns distant from the alleged DEI policies, i.e. equality and diversity policies. So it can be seen that any spheres will not adapt so quickly, but business can respond rather efficiently on specified issues and adapt to a fresh approach.

Or do demography have cultural conditions? Israel has a advanced fertility rate and a affirmative example of the Czech Republic...

Barbara Socha: Israel is surely an exception. It has a fertility much higher than the substitutability of generations, and it is in a sense unique. We must remember that Israel is simply a different civilization – a judaic civilization, completely different from ours. Cultural changes that have taken place in the western world, in America or Western Europe, in rule do not concern Israel – they bypass it.

In this civilization, the function of women is perceived completely differently. It is rather apparent that women take care of children. In our civilisation, specified an approach is fundamentally combated. delight don't get me incorrect – I'm not saying that we should force women to have children or to resign from work. Instead, we should respect free elections, and the public absolutely does not respect free elections.

The prestige is to work in corporations. The proverbial “sit at home” is absolutely not prestigious. It is simply a cultural issue present in our civilisation and that is why we are dealing with what we have.

The Czech Republic was an exception for a while – indeed the fertility grew there. However, fresh data show very strong declines, as in all European countries. Unfortunately, we can besides talk about the demographic crisis in the Czech Republic.

I think these changes will besides scope Europe due to the fact that we are business-related. The US and European markets are interconnected, for example through the presence of American corporations in Europe. Just as many management styles, solutions or business fashions came to us from the United States, so present the same way can come to common sense – economical and substantive issues.

The word "meritocracy", which is presently pursuing a career in the United States, can besides scope Europe. However, we must remember that our changes have not gone as far as in the US, even at universities. In our country, meritocracy inactive mostly exists and has not been destroyed to the degree that unfortunately happened in the United States.

A lot of effort is made present to combine different spheres of life – household and professional – depending on the choices made. These are hard issues, but statistic show that women are arriving in local governments at different levels of administration. We've got more and more city presidents, more and more chiefs and chiefs. So there's a clear upward trend.

From a demographic perspective, this is simply a secondary issue. Freedom to choose a career way is most desirable and we should make it easier for women – both those working in local governments and everyone else – to combine professional and life aspirations with household aspirations.

What should be the emphasis in Poland's demographic policy?

Barbara Socha: By introducing different public policies, we should always consider their impact on families and their future. If, today, erstwhile examining investments, an investor has to survey their impact on the population of snails, and we do not consider the impact of the undertaking on the future of families or the number of children, that is, we do not yet have adequate maturity to conduct an effective demographic policy.

Awareness, consistency and coherence of public policies are needed – and that is missing today. I do not know a country where all public policy would be filtered in this way. This is due to many reasons: competence, organizational, extended state strategy and the existence of various ministries or "silos".

However, this is simply a certain level of maturity, to which I think we are going. Awareness of the hard demographic situation should make more and more politicians and the full political class aware of it.

What challenges are faced by the Institute of Generation Foundation?

Barbara Socha: The fundamental challenge present is to find sources of funding. Our activity is mostly based on volunteering of people cooperating with us. However, we are preparing further projects and reports, we want to make interdisciplinary cognition combining demography with another social problems, specified as the intellectual wellness of children, adolescents and adults, or problems of loneliness and their social and economical consequences.

These are the topics we want to talk about due to the fact that we know that there are no institutions in Poland that would like to deal with them in a systemic way.

AI Interviews KNJ Source: XBW Foundation / photograph Barbara Socha – origin – CSR.pl Report ♪ Oh, yeah ♪ 7.12.2026