MORE ON THE EAST GERMANY/WEST GERMANY EXPERIMENT. I posted here on some of the results of the experiment which divided East Germany from West Germany for over 25 years. With the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Washington Post is running a series of essays looking at the effects of German reunification. This article by Rick Noack (October 31) describes, with illustrative maps, some of the differences which persist between West Germany and East Germany.
Here are some of them:
*75% of East Germans consider reunification a success; only 25% of West Germans do.
*Even after 25 years, income levels are much lower in the East than in the West.
*There is a higher percentage of young people in the West.
*There is a higher percentage of children under 2 in full-time child care in the East.
* A much higher percentage of people in the East get flu shots.