Anniversary Month

Fall of the Berlin Wall

by Alex Hutchins

In the early 1960’s, I was fortunate enough to move overseas and attend high school in Cairo, Egypt (1962-1966) and since we could not work in the summer, many of us would travel through Europe, visiting countries such as:  France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and sometimes countries into the far east and Russia depending upon where the group wanted to go.

Europe on $3 a Day  published by SAS Airlines was a book that all of us carried around that not only gave us the best hostels in which to stay but pointed the way to restaurants and Eurail passes that would inexpensively transport us from one country to the next.  If we timed our trip correctly, we could board a sleeper train and save additional monies.

Even then, Americans were perceived by the rest of the world as arrogant and wealthy and many Europeans that we interacted with saw us as “spoiled.”  It was an interesting experience, as a high school student, to say the least but never really cared about the way that I was being treated by Europeans; however, I do remember that no matter which country I visited, nowhere did I see a situation where the people lived like we did in America.  Europeans tolerated us while at the same time disliking us or maybe it was just jealousy.

50 years later, Europe’s financial growth and success has been contingent upon Americans buying their products and Europe’s economic crisis is going to impact Americans because Europeans no longer have the excess wealth to purchase our products.  I would suspect that Europeans are treating American tourists better these days due to the impact we have had on their economy this last half century.  I would also suspect that Americans our treating foreign tourists equally as well because of the impact they have had on our economy.

My point here is that our world is inextricably linked together whether we like it or not.  Our economic success is based upon the rest of the world buying our products and their success is based upon us buying their products.

In 1989 (November 10), when the Berlin Wall came down, East Berliners began to see what the rest of the world enjoyed and wanted to enjoy it as well.  That phenomenon spread throughout Europe and throughout the rest of the world.  Thomas Friedman wrote about it in, The World is Flat and Americans are now being given the opportunity to share their wealth, their opportunities, and their freedoms with the rest of the world.  Twenty-two years after the Berlin Wall was torn down, middle classes from all over the world have begun to grow in size and in their demands, some of which are:  China, India, Opec Oil countries, Russia, Germany, and Mexico.

There is another phenomenon that is occurring in the world today and that is the middle class family.  As the middle class declines in America, across the globe the middle class in other countries is on the rise.  While Americans have reduced their birth rates, other countries have increased their birth rates. 

Whether we, as Americans, realized it or not, we have a drug-like addiction to petroleum crude oil and the products made from oil, other than gasoline.  60 products made from petroleum crude oil.  From petroleum crude oil, come plastics and plastics is involved in just about every product that we purchase.  List of plastic products List of plastic products    more plastic products

My basic understanding of the economics surrounding supply and demand is that, if the supply does not increase close to the same rate as the increase in demand, then that shortfall will cause prices to increase unless the government steps in with price supports.  With the rise in global population and with the worldwide rise in the middle class, that will offsetting the decrease in the United States, my logic tells me that a shortage is just around the corner that will be accompanied by an increase in prices.

And, all of this started a mere 22 years ago with the fall of the Berlin Wall.  I personally think it is astounding how fast the economic climate can change in the world today.  “it was 20 years ago today, St. Peppers taught the band to play.”  As the saying goes:  time flies when you’re having fun.