GERMANY: Flight to Solvency
Worried by the discovery that only 9% of the refugees who fled from Communist East Germany (over 18,000 last month) had to leave for political reasons, the West German Ministry for All-German Affairs made a detailed poll of refugee political convictions. Of the workers polled (all of whom had been employed in Communist state-run industries), 22% were still outspoken in support of Communist policy; 25% criticized some aspects of the Communist Party line and defended others; 17% were in favor of state ownership of all means of production; 25% supported "moderate" nationalization. And only 8% were for free enterprise pure and simple.
Why then had they fled to free-enterprise West Germany? Usual answer: "To earn more money."
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