If the English plumber is to expensive and the polish plumber is cheaper how can they live in this?

Question

If the English plumber is to expensive and the polish plumber is cheaper how can they live in this country with high living costs?

Answer 1

Because they are getting more work ,,as you said,,the english plumber is more expensive,,and I bet the Polish plumber does a better job and won't charge you £50 to walk through the door

Answer 2

It's simple: the Polish plumber is resigned to the fact that he will live his life in utter poverty just like an Asian grocery/newsshop person will. When faced with this competition, the English plumber can either survive well still charging what he does; or he may have to rethink his profession or his pricing. The generalisation does not cover all cases.

But in general, the Polish plumber you mention will have to forego most of the TV time, holidays, newspapers, eating out, dating, computer games & toys, the cinema, decent & brand name shopping ............................ until he has managed to get a sufficient clientele that he can then assimilate his prices up and his workhours per week down to the level of the English plumber.

Answer 3

For a start polish people are not allowed to claim benefits or housing. English plumbers may be seen as expensive but this is due to a shortage of them. Mainly because 17-18 year olds and the government feel that its best to go to university to do a degree in greek mythology and philosphy. I have worked in the building industry and the wages are very decent. But with the increase in polish and god forbid, albanians and romanians. The wages will obviously go back right back down throughout the whole construction industry. Therefore we will be full up with the youth of england knowing everything about greek mythology and f*** all else.

Answer 4

By sharing a room with 3 other guys and existing on the barest minimum they can. Unfortunately, the downside of getting a cheap Polish plumber is that a few weeks later, you have to get a fully qualified English plumber in to do the job properly. My landlord paid a Polish bloke to putty and paint the windows in my house 2 weeks ago, he's half done the job and no ones seen him since. Pay peanuts and get monkeys. Mind you, my landlords an imbecile.

Answer 5

In spite of what other people have answered, the Poles come here quite legally, as europeans, and do not claim benefits. They are hard-working decent folk in the main, and are usually a pleasure to work with.

Their main concern is for their families back home, and the possibility of getting enough money together to return to Poland and start up their own businesses.

In order to do this, they tend to live in a house where other migrant (not immigrant) workers live, and share the costs. They are often employed by bad employers on little more than minimum wage, and yet, by working long hours, or sometimes through the night for better money, they manage to save perhaps £50 a week.

That's the same as you or I saving £200 a week in the UK, and that's about £10,000 a year! For those who do better paid work, that could be the same as us saving £20,000 per year.

The fact is, the Poles who come here work hard, they fit in well, they don't scrounge (unlike the yobs and druggies on the council estates) and they arre a credit to their country.

Sure, they take jobs, which is the downside to the whole thing, and not just in plumbing. The transport industry has suffered from central and eastern european hauliers picking up many of the contracts which used to be handled by UK hauliers, but that is simple competition.

There is, I think, an urgent need to address the wages paid to migrant workers. The idea of a plumber or other skilled tradesman working for minimum wage or just above, is not one which I like, because it is simple exploitation by greedy employers with few scruples.

Perhaps we should remember that the Poles (and many of the Czechs) were great allies during WW2, and ever since then, they have had a very hard time under communism, with almost slave-wages.

Instead of blaming the Poles and using them as political fotballs, perhaps we should get to know some of them, as I have done.

Knowing what the Poles are like, you could end up with a friend for life.

Answer 6

Lower prices often lead to more jobs. A higher priced plumber doing jobs 5 hours a day makes less than a cheaper plumber doing jobs 8 hours a day.

Or the lower priced plumber lives in a cheaper place, eats cheaper food, and drives a slightly older vehicle.

Answer 7

I"ll tell you exactly how they can afford to work for a lower wage.

They are over here on a temporary basis 18 months -2 years and are living 3/4 to a room in cheap bed & breakfast.

They come over here because the wages are several times higher per hour than in Poland.

I spoke with a young polish lad working on a building site. He had been in this country for 18 months and was shortly returning to Poland, as he had saved enough money to buy a house outright back at home.

If they had the same expectations materialistically as we have, then they wouln"t be able to work for less money.

The blame, as far as I am concerned, is fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the employers. It is these people that have a eye on extra profit at the expense of everything else.

I can"t blame the Poles for coming here. If there were no job opportunities, they wouldn"t come.

Answer 8

English plumbers are more expensive because they charge too much - just like lawyers. They know they have a monolpoly because there is more demand than supply.

Usually, english plumbers charge about £50 just for ringing your door bell or telling you what work you need before they get started. They can afford to drop their prices and still make a decent living like the rest of us.

Answer 9

yeah kinda makes you wonder don't it? How do they work for peanuts, live over here and send money home? As i am attached to the construction industry, I've gotta stick up for the British plumber. Does anyone out there know what it takes to be a qualified plumber in the UK?, How many of the poles have Corgi registered on the side of their hire van? not many, if any. I've been on jobs where the poles have been and I'm sorry to say, but you do get what you pay for,CRAP.

Answer 10

With the prices the English plumbers charge, a bit of competition might teach them not to be such greedy merchants in the first place, especially if the Poles can do an equal or better quality job !