Quality of Life in 1980's East Germany

the most helpful article on quality on life in the DDR from Britain's only daily socialist newspaper:

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/inde ... full/81617

Thank you for posting this.

Loz wrote:

Found this table in my Politics school-book.

"The difference in living standards between West and East Germany in 1989"
(taken from "The Macro Economy Today" by Bradley R. Schiller)

It shows the price of several products as a percentage of average monthly income in West and East Germany

Color TV: West Germany:38% / East Germany:588%
Washing machine: 48% / 365%
Car(VW Polo/Trabant): 1143% / 11765%
Beef,1 kg: 0,7% / 1%
Jeans: 3% / 15%
Women's shoes: 4% / 14%

Those numbers look completely fake. There is one I can clearly disprove.
Czech car dealer pricing for the year 1977-78: Trabant (worst car in the Eastern Bloc) : 36500 CZK
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/d ... Dk1977.gif
Czech gross average salary for the year 1977: 2457 CZK
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... clnk&gl=cz

Trabant: 1485% of Czech average salary

For 11765% you could buy 2 GAZ Volgas 24 and a 1 Ford Cortina 1600

Well that's the data for Czechoslovakia, mine's for GDR.
In the Eastern Block cars for export were often subsidized by the domestic consumers, and Lada was sometimes cheaper in the UK than in the USSR for example, so that might have played a role as well.

Anyway almost 15 average salaries for a shit car just proves my point. Nowadays the average net salary in Czechia is around 700-800 euros i think, so that's around 12 000 euro, enough for a decent Škoda.

Loz wrote:

Well that's the data for Czechoslovakia, mine's for GDR.
In the Eastern Block cars for export were often subsidized by the domestic consumers, and Lada was sometimes cheaper in the UK than in the USSR for example, so that might have played a role as well.

Anyway almost 15 average salaries for a shit car just proves my point. Nowadays the average net salary in Czechia is around 700-800 euros i think, so that's around 12 000 euro, enough for a decent Škoda.

Your data is simply fake. It is literally impossible for the same car to be 10 times cheaper in the Czech Republic than in Germany. If that was the case nobody would be driving in Germany if the worst car on the market was worth 120 paychecks.

Considering your second point. I am not sure whether cars were generally as cheap in the 70s as they are now but lets skip that. Comparing net salaries is a little dishonest when the real unemployment rate is around 12% and these people are hardly making much. Socialist economies put in place synthetic employment which makes unemployment non existent.

Even with data adjusted for unemployment which I doubt there even is it would still not tell much. So many things used to be subsidized in the past, utilities were almost for free, vacations almost entirely subsidized, healthcare was way cheaper than nowadays and the list would go on. Interest rates on any loan were very low so unless you are paying cash, which almost nobody does when purchasing houses and cars, the price skyrockets.

Quote:

Your data is simply fake. It is literally impossible for the same car to be 10 times cheaper in the Czech Republic than in Germany. If that was the case nobody would be driving in Germany if the worst car on the market was worth 120 paychecks.

You do know that people saved 20 years for a Trabant, right? You couldn't just go and buy it. Nor could you legally import it just like that back then, as is done nowadays.
Also as i said, cars for export were often subsidized by domestic buyers in communist countries.

Loz wrote:

You do know that people saved 20 years for a Trabant, right? You couldn't just go and buy it. Nor could you legally import it just like that back then, as is done nowadays.
Also as i said, cars for export were often subsidized by domestic buyers in communist countries.

It is hard to believe since my family did not need to save up at all and bough it using a loan. It is true they had to wait few months in the waiting list but that was about it. Are you German or where did you get this liberal propaganda? I don't understand why are you a socialist then if you truly believe life was so shit.