The Red Menace

[From a conversation I had elsewhere in cyberspace]

Val,

Of course it never decentralized. A Communist state was by nature centralized. The fatal flaw in traditional Marxist theory and practice was the notion that the revolutionary dictatorship would allow itself to wither away. People tend to like absolute power once they get hold of it. It's fun. Communists were no different.

I can't speak to what East Germany did to "help people around the world". I know that in the US most foreign aid never leaves the country. Say the agriculture minister of Lower Slobbovia receives a dollop of American development aid. He gets a loan guarantee from the US govt, takes that to New York City to secure a bank loan, then spends that loan in Minnesota and Illinois on seed and farm equipment. The aid stays in the Union, generating profits for the bank, John Deere and ADM. This is why you rarely hear organized labor or big business complain about foreign aid. It's really just another transfer payment.

Back to the East Germans, a college friend of mine got a job driving the East German press corps around Los Angeles during the '84 Olympics. Since the Eastern bloc was boycotting the games in retaliation for Carter boycotting the '80 Moscow Games, the press corps didn't have much to do, so he ended up mainly showing them the sights.

They were like kids who'd never left the orphanage before, he said. Just about everything amazed them. They'd drive up to Jack in the Box restaurants just to hear the clown (remember this?) ask them for their order. They'd roar laughing, then ask to drive around and do it again. Supermarkets stunned them, particularly the extensive meat section. They would just stare at it for minutes on end. But nothing amazed them more than housing. They couldn't believe that even in South Central L.A. (and my friend noted that they had anything-but-progressive views on race overall) people could buy and own their own home.

They hated the Russians. They considered them backward and ignorant for the most part, and told my friend with some pride that the Soviets quietly used German expertise on everything from armaments to fishing, while offering nothing in return. "They're nothing but a drag on us", they said. They had a low opinion of the Soviet military, too. "Outside of the big bombs (nukes) there's nothing much for you Westerners to worry about. If they ever attack Europe", they said, "just drop some vodka and whores among them and they'll forget all about you." They accused the East German Communist Party of making money by supplying Soviet occupation troops with sex workers in return for hard currency which they kept outside of the country.

Moral to the story of Communism: you can't run a country with a Department of Everything doing everything. It just don't work.

But a little socialized health care right now ain't a bad idea.