austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil

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90 THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL CHAP TER2 AN POST-MORTEM COMPA RISON OF COMMUNIST AND CA PITA LIST SOCIETIES USING THE GERMAN CASE AS AN ILLUSTRATION Many believe the collapse of East Germany represented evidence that the country's communist society was inferior to the West German capitalist one, insofar as the East German people did vote to replace their own system with the West German one in 1990. However, the voting was heavily biased by the greater riches offered by West Germany, and, contrary to popular myth (Christ, 1991) and related propaganda (Summer, 1994), these superior riches were not derived from the capitalist system itself but from the postwar treatment of Germany. This chapter uses the most recent data and information to show that, despite its very serious disadvantage of starting with much less wealth, the communist East German society was superior in many respects. DOMINATING INFLUENCE OF MANDATORY EAST GERMAN REPARATIONS PAYMENTS Real income per capita started at a far lower level in East Germany because of reparations payments it had to make shortly after World War II, and, despite faster real economic growth in East Germany, it had not yet caught up with West German levels by 1989. In particular, in the 15 years after World War II the Soviet Union extracted over 50 bil . lion Marks in reparations fro� East Germany than West Germany Patd (Apel, 1966). More recent West German government estimates of total East German reparations and other payments to the Soviet Union
92 THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL indicate a figure over 100 billion Marks (Merkel and Wahl, 1991 ), which represented several times tiny East Germany's National Income or annual output at the time of the payments (most of which occurred between 1945 and 1953). While West Germany also made some postwar payments related to Nazi Germany's atrocities and war defeat (including compensation to war victims), they were largely offset by Marsha11 Plan aid given to West Germany by the USA shortly after World War 11 {Apel, 1966). If East Germany had instead been able to invest the 100 billion Marks in reparations (starting in 1953 and reinvesting all capital and earnings each year) at its average 18% rate of return on investments (Naumann and Truempler, 1990), it would have compounded to give East Germans income per capita equal to about 15 times the level in West Germany in 1989. 1 Instead, however, the enormous reparations caused East German income per capita to be only about 2/5 that of West Germany in the 1950s (Merkel and Wahl, 1991 ), although it had risen to 2/3 of the West German level by 1989 (Gregory and Stuart, 1995). It was the discrep· ancy in personal income arising from differences in reparations that had caused East Germany to build the Berlin Wall in 1961 in order to prevent its skilled workers (such as essential doctors and nurses) from being "bought" by the richer West Germany (Ape1, 1966). In fa ct, before the Berlin Wall was erected, several million East Germans ( espe· cially skilled workers like doctors and engineers) moved to West Ger· many for the higher incomes available there, and this migration resulted in a large loss to the East German economy (Apel, 1966). Besides the large net migrations of people, black market activities and outright sab· otage by both the CIA and West Germany also helped motivate the building of the Wall (Blum, 1995). Given that East German income would have been higher than in West Germany without the reparations payments, it can be deduced that it would not have been necessary for East Germany to have the Berlin Wall if West Germany had made its share of the reparations payments fo r Nazi Germany's war crimes. In particular, the burden to East Ger· many would have thereby been enormously reduced and would have allowed its income to be substantially higher. At the same time, West Germany's income would have been reduced by it making its share of the payments. In this situation, it probably would not have been nee· CHAPTER 2 essary for East Germany to have slightly longer work weeks (since it would not have been necessary to catch up with the West), nor to have such severe shortages (that could have been alleviated with greater wealth), nor to spend so little on pollution control (that reflected East Germany's relative poverty), nor to restrict political freedoms (that East Germany did not want the richer West Germany to take advantage of), nor to have such an obnoxious secret police (whose primary purpose was to keep East Germans from leaving the country for the greater riches of West Germany). All the relative disadvantages of communism in East Germany may therefore derive, at least partially, from its postwar reparations (and not from communism). Thus, it is possible to conclude that communism in ·East Germany was superior to capitalism in West Germany in all respects (except of course for the super rich, who would become less wealthy and powerful under communism). A list of the relative advantages of each system is provided in Table 3, fo llowed by a more general discussion. TABLE 3 A LISTING OF THE RELATIVE ADVANTAGES OF COMMUNISM AND CAPITALISM IN GERMANY Adngtagn of Communist Society I. No unemployment 2. No inflation 3. No life-sustaining anxieties 4. More rights for women and children 5. Equal educational opportunities 6. Socially more just 7. More natural 8. Much less crime 9. Less overall police control I 0. Not harassed by Western secret police II. Not as manipulated by the Western press 12. Not manipulated by Western marketing 13. No need to shop around for the best price 14. Simpler tax system IS. Faster economic growth Western Adyantun• I. Shorter work hours" 2. Fewer shortages" 3. Lower pollution• 4. Political freedom fa�ade' 5. More travel freedom• 6. Less transparent police' 7. Greater wealth, i.e., escaped I'Cllaratjoos• a. Note that all of the advantages of capitalism in Germany stem at least in part from (or were made possible by) the greater beginning wealth of West Ger many. 93
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