In the east, in contrast, a shortage of jobs has made employees more willing to move house or work longer hours for lower pay, fewer holidays and less protection from wage bargaining agreements. That in turn has boosted the region's business appeal.

Last year I came across a Czech government brochure intended for the chemical industry in which they boasted Czechia's "cheap labour force". And this was a social-democratic government. With friends like these, workers don't need enemies.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman