Communism

At the end of WW 2 the city of Berlin was divided into four sections. The communist area was known as East Berlin. Between 1945 and 1961 three million East Berliners fled to US controlled West Berlin. The exodus was gaining strength and so the Berlin Wall was built. It was not designed to keep out enemies but to keep people from fleeing the country. That was the first signal to the world as to what communism was all about. The secret police known as the Stasi placed spies in every corner to prevent people from sneaking out of the country. People reported suspicious activity on their neighbors and border guards were closely watched. Many people were killed trying to cross and 300,000 were arrested and charged with planning to cross. As people lived in fear the economy began to suffer. Over the year many photos were released showing the suffering of the people including shots of empty super market shelves. People who lose their freedom lose their desire to grow and succeed and the country further deteriorated. The differences between East and West Berlin are stark. The central planning concept that communism was built on did not work and production efficiency was low and prices were high. Both East and West started with nothing as the war ended but after that the growth of the two sides changed dramatically. By 1972 the GDP per capital was $7,800 in the East and $13,000 in the West. By 1990 it was $9,700 vs $18,300. These were people with the same education, the same language and the same heritage but the economies were very different. It is a perfect situation to compare central planning with free markets. The same situation could be seen in North and South Korea. Despite all of the evidence there are still people who believe in communism as the best way to help the people. The only areas where communism is having any success is China and Vietnam and both of these countries only started to grow when they opened the door to the free market.