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March 13, 2020

Just now on the subway in Causeway Bay, a young man jumped into the train without buying a ticket. I don't know if it was affected by the social movement and did not pay the "Party Iron"; transportation. But what reminds me is Berlin, Germany, when East and West Germany was just unified more than 20 years ago.

At that time, the newly unified Germany chose Berlin as the capital, and some districts were carrying out construction projects everywhere. The state also set up a lot of subsidies for cultural and creative industries in Berlin, so it attracted not only local people from Germany, but also creative talents from other European countries. The problem is that there are too many floating people and it is difficult to find a job. Berlin is between East and West Germany, and the gap between the rich and the poor is huge. Artists are all part-time workers who have nothing to do with their majors. They are popular to buy second-hand items, and now they are environmentally friendly. At that time, they mainly bought second-hand items when they had financial problems. At the same time in Munich, a former West German city, because it is relatively wealthy, the items bought in second-hand stores have been selected and are more refined. Compared with Berlin, the locals called these second-hand shops "trash" (garbage shops) at that time. It is conceivable that the second-hand items sold in these shops are not the favorite of some people who store second-hand fashionable toys. Since the friends who took me to play were dealing with local people, they taught me some habits of local people, such as buying only one ticket for taking the subway, and reusing that ticket when taking the subway. Because the gate is open, it's up to you whether you can play the ticket or not. However, there are plainclothes raid tickets on the platform, and if you are caught, you will be fined. I don't know whether the local government thinks that the citizens have quality and will automatically pay the fare, or whether the difference between the rich and the poor is too great, so they opened the gate and let people come and go by themselves.