Life shortened with the restoration of capitalism in East Germany

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Charlotte
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Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2022 9:37 am

Life shortened with the restoration of capitalism in East Germany

Post by Charlotte »

Few people are aware that democracy and freedom will add years to your life. This is something we always suspected was true, and now we finally have proof from a live test case. Reuters released a statistical study on Germany, covering the period since the reunification of East and West in 1990, confirming that former East German citizens had added an extra 6 years to their lifespan for men, and 4 years for women. The study claimed breathlessly that the life expectancy of East Germans had “risen sharply since their communist state crumbled and they [joined] the more prosperous West in 1990”. Tobias Vogt, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, did the calculations himself and released the results, claiming, “The gain in longevity is thus one of the biggest – albeit often overlooked – achievements of German reunification”.

But then in 2000, the Health Affairs Journal published a large international study of longevity which revealed that the entire world – all nations – had, on average, added 6 years to their life spans during a similar time frame, so it seems democracy and freedom played no part in the improvement in East Germany. Even worse, the German women should have gained six years of extra life but gained only four, leading to the sad but necessary conclusion that, at least for women, democracy and freedom will shorten your life. As a point of interest, both studies ignored the fact that while all other nations gained 6 years of longevity, the US experienced no gain at all – zero – during that 25-year period, one of the few nations in this position.
Democracy Causes Happiness
In related news, many reports have been published on the happiness and success of the East German people “since their communist state crumbled” and they joined the “more prosperous” West. But in all those reports, it seems nobody actually asked the East Germans how they felt about it. Finally, someone did. A new study was released in 2014 resulting from interviews and a poll of many East Germans, and it seems that a great majority of those over age 50 claim to have been “much happier” under communism, and more than 40% of all younger people shared that sentiment. We are now faced with the sad revelation that democracy and freedom will neither make you happier nor let you live longer. And, if you’re a woman, you will not only die sooner but will be unhappy until you do. Even worse, if you’re an American, your freedom and democracy are killing you off at a faster rate than the Axis of Evil members. Such a shame.
https://www.unz.com/lromanoff/a-small-tapestry-of-lies/
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