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West Berlin was a bustling Western European city, East Berlin was gray and drab, both the people and buildings. It was a shock. The cars in East Berlin were Yugos that reminded me of American go-karts. People’s clothes were gray and fit poorly. I didn’t see anyone smile.

https://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2019/11/the-consequences-of-berlin-wall.html

A year before the Berlin Wall came down, I had the opportunity to cross Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin.

If anything, from my experience, Johan Norberg underplays the differences between the two sides of the wall.

West Berlin was a bustling Western European city, East Berlin was gray and drab, both the people and buildings. It was a shock. The cars in East Berlin were Yugos that reminded me of American go-karts. People’s clothes were gray and fit poorly. I didn’t see anyone smile.

I have often thought that anyone who could experience the difference a wall and a different economic structure could make, in what was once a unified liberal city, could never become, or continue to be, a communist.

–RW