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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (360664)	11/28/2007 6:16:16 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575396

East Germany grew under its dictatorship but all the wealth was siphoned off to its elite and Mother Russia. That's what happens in a dictatorship, not socialism. Thank you for confirming my point. Remove that communist dictatorship, and you allow for greater economic growth. Yes you start out poorer but that makes higher growth easier. Its easier to have rapid growth off of a small base (except perhaps if it is so small that there is almost no infrastructure, or skilled and/or educated people, and that was NOT the case in East Germany. Notice how growth rates in the countries in central and eastern Europe that have liberalized their economies has been high. East Germany was hardly the basket case of the communist block, so it doesn't provide an excuse for slower growth in Germany, let alone the slower overall growth in Europe.

To: TimF who wrote (360664)	11/28/2007 8:36:16 PM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1575396

"Its easier to have rapid growth off of a small base (except perhaps if it is so small that there is almost no infrastructure, or skilled and/or educated people, and that was NOT the case in East Germany. " You are forgetting, or choosing to ignore, several important factors. For one, the education system in the old East Germany was different from the one in West Germany. Imagine, for example, you were a top lawyer in the old East Germany. Or a teacher. Or any professional. Suddenly, it is a new game. West Germans are very picky about credentials. It isn't like it is here. In addition, there was a marked preference for West German brands. After unification, most East German companies did not survive. That also included such things as agricultural products. I mean, was West German milk really better? So the infrastructure and education, not to mention many skills, weren't much of a help to anyone.