tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post5663792359949876916..comments2024-03-27T16:39:43.522+00:00Comments on Liberal England: It is 25 years since the Berlin Wall was torn downJonathan Calderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00730157683743989696noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post-70033418104103249892014-11-09T13:58:39.483+00:002014-11-09T13:58:39.483+00:00Imho the main reason for the fall of the "Soc...Imho the main reason for the fall of the "Socialist" regimes was their economic and ecological disastrous performance.<br />Even with the help from the West (countless billions of Marks just from West Germany to East Germany and Yugoslavia) the difference in productivity and standards of living gre wider by the year.<br />From what I heard from friends in East Germany and saw on our regular holidays in Yugoslavia (at least three or four times a year) it was horrible!<br /><br />In yugoslavia you had an inflation of several 100% and de facto the Deutsche Mark was the real currency.<br /><br />In East Germany you could only get second rate products (like rejects from the factories which produced things for West Germany) at ridiculous prices - only basic stuff like bread was artificially kept low in price, so farmers bought it to feed their hens, cheaper than chicken food ...<br />And our politicians in the West could not see or didn't want to see the disaster that was coming - that I'll never understand!wolfinoreply@blogger.com