Warunki funkcjonowania gospodarstw domowych a możliwości konsumpcji usług w okresie transformacji systemowej

The system transformation in connection with the introduction of market mechanisms changed the conditions in which Polish households operate. Many of them found themselves in a very difficult situation related to - for example - unemployment, being a threat for the existence of families and the fulfillment of their economical functions. Many people making use of "economical freedom", their own entrepreneurship and market activity began to make decisions about their own carriers, improving their socio-economical status. During the last few years a diversification process in the population income level has taken place. The transformation process concerns both the households environment as well as the households themselves. The role of services in households depends on the consumption possibilities, their share in satisfying the needs for housing, nutrition, clothing, education and care as well as free-time activities. In the 1990s a significant diversity in the service consumption possibilities in different socio-economic groups of households is observed. One part of the society has found new ways of achieving unrealized and newly created needs concerning services. For many consumers it has become a must to apply defense measures in order to, among others, develop self-service activities in the face of a decrease of their level of life. The increase of self-service in satisfying needs charges the budgets of families and has negative effects. The research of the Institute of Domestic Market and Consumption among urban households indicates that in 2/3 of the surveyed families excessive amounts of time are used for self-service. This leads to specific difficulties in the functioning of households, especially in the case of those representing the traditional family model. Currently services play a decidedly too small role in households. The consumption of services as a substitute for work in households influences the quality of life, the amount and way of spending free time in accordance with the principle when you buy services -you buy time, creates specific life styles and family standards. Together with the growth in the level of life of the Polish society we will approach the consumption patterns functioning in modern societies, where services constitute at least 50% of the total consumption and a systematic increase of the share of consumption of social services is observed. The basic conditions of these changes is a steady economic growth of our country and changes in mentality and consumer attitudes of the Polish society as well as the changes in the service market.