[lbo-talk] Ostalgie

[Chris Doss]

Ostalgie is complicated, made up of various ingredients. One is clearly the 
disillusionment felt by many former Easterners over German reunification, 
which took place 13 years ago. Unemployment these days is commonly 25 
percent in regions like Eisenhüttenstadt. Rents are no longer subsidized. 
Doctor visits cost money. People can be fired. In addition, as Andreas 
Ludwig, the West German scholar of urban history who started the museum a 
few years ago, noted, even capitalist products break down or are shabby and 
schlocky.
----
Somebody tell the NYT: Actually-existing socialism just wasn't that 
horrible! I am really tired of all these lame articles trying to "explain" 
"nostalgia" for "communism," as if there is something weird in people liking 
an economic system in which it is almost impossible to be fired.

Actually, the East Germans were one of the best-off of all the Warsaw Pact 
countries.

It's 2 p.m. Moscow time -- so I assume I'll get my first email from Pugliese 
detailing how horrible "Stalinism" was in about 4-5 hours. I wait with bated 
breath.

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