Perspective from an East German
Posted by richrobinson 11 years, 11 months ago to The Gulch: General
A customer saw my Who is John Galt shirt today and asked if I had read the book. She said the size of it intimidated her a little but she feels she should read it. She grew up in East Germany under Communism. Shortly after the wall came down her family moved here. She said the amount of freedom we enjoyed was shocking and exciting. She had never even been to West Germany so this was her first experience outside of Communism. She feels her story is similar to Ayn Rand and I agreed. She feels that we are moving closer to Communism and she can't believe it. She said she hopes we wake up soon to what is going on.
While the statistic is true, it is misleading. totalitarian nations tend to imprison people for plitical crimes rather than 'regular crimes" such as robbery and other property and assault type crimes. In such societies there is less opportunity for property crimes. The United States offers much more opportunity to commit such crimes due to many factors, not the least of which is more wealth and a more permissive society that leads people in a criminal direction.
Fred Speckmann
commonsensefopramericans@yahoo.com
I had never heard the story of the stove, but it makes the point brilliantly. your analysis about the trend of our economy due to the total lack of economic knowledge of president Obama, either that or his deliberate attempt to destroy our economy for his political based on his misguided beliefs.
You are also correct about your analysis of natural born citizens compared to immigrants who realize what is happening. I think the story of throwing a frog into boiling water and the frog jumping out as compared to putting the frog in cold water and turning up the heat to slowly cook him is a good comparison to what is happening to american citizens. we are slowly being cooked without realizing it. Wake up America, there's an election coming and I would advise to vote for "real conservatives as our only hope.
Fred Speckmann
commonsenseforamericans@yahoo.com
We too used to have bathroom attendants in hotels and some restaurants that worked for tips. In fact, many casinos throughout the U.S. still have them and they do provide a service such as cologne and towels to the patrons. Your comment about them spying on you in the East Berlin bathrooms isan astute observation, any tourist that travelled in the east was more than likely under observation.
My own experience in travelling back in East germany on my honeymoon in 1969 after having escaped from there in 1957 and by 1969 being a U.S. citizen was that my wife and I would only go on day trips and would not stay overnight. thankfully, computers didn't exist in those days for them to check me out quickly as my U.S. Passport only stated my country of birth as Germany. frankly, thinking back on that trip, I must admit that i was foolish to expose my wife to the dangers of both of us being picked up by the VOPO's.
Fred Speckmann
commonsenseforamericans@yahoo.com
I too am an immigrant from East Germany (DDR). My family and I escaped from east Germany in 1957, before the wall was built. However, even though we were allowed to travel to West Berlin, you were always taking a chance of being pulled of the train for the slightest suspicion. Often, people who were taken off the train were never seen again.
My father was imprisoned for “political conspiracy for 14 months because he and some friends spoke of politics and frankly the main reason was because we still owned a business. This was during the time when the East German government was confiscating just about every privately owned business.
We managed to smuggle out some money over a years’ time during a period when the government would close the banks periodically in order to issue new currency so that the people couldn’t hoard money and smuggle it to West Berlin.
One of the consequences of the constant new currency was that the money exchange rate became a greater and greater spread where the Money almost became totally worthless in West Berlin.
One of the strangest discoveries in East Berlin was when the crowds rushed the VOPO (East German Security Service) headquarters and discovered hundreds of thousands of jars filled with pieces of clothing and hair to be used by bloodhounds to help search for escapees.
It is also true that husbands and wives spied against each other, not much different from the World War II Nazi days.
fred Speckmann
commonsenseforamericans@yahoo.com
Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, "We don't know how lucky we are." And the Cuban stopped and said, "How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to." And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.
You've got that right! As a business owner required to make quarterly payments, I see how much I give and recognize how little I get for my money. There is no greater robbery.
Regards,
O.A.
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