Walls don't work. Never have never will. The Berlin Wall 1961-1989 don't fall for it.

[Igel]

1. Two things need be said.

First, the wall worked very well. The fence didn't do a bad job, either, but it wasn't nearly as effective as the wall. Most people aren't aware that the fence even existed. Then again, most think the wall was just a wall. Without the machine guns, not nearly as effective.

Second, the wall was intended to keep people in. And while those who left often had an economic motive in addition to any others, the primary motive was fear of a hateful, oppressive, abusive government, either because you did and said things you shouldn't have, that went against policy and were politically incorrect, or they suspected that you did.

(And I'm sure somebody'll say that "politically incorrect" isn't a thing, even though the USSR coined the phrase and its satellites adopted it quite nicely as way of expressing a very real idea. It's a warning: What you're saying or doing isn't in accord with the officially adopted political views and policy. To say something was politically correct was to say it was the right choice given right policies and correct political views. Russian sometimes lacks a clear distinction between "policies" and "politics". In English, conservatives picked up the phrase from the Communist Party of the USA, reinforced by translations from Russian. The CP USA was, of course, firmly Stalinist until Stalin was denounced. Satellite. )