I will answer this since I believe I can offer some insight ( born in the old country during Communism reign ).
People sometimes erroneously assume that money equals power. That may be true in the west, but a more accurate statement is that money is a good proxy for power. Absent that, power moves to another useful resource that can be bartered for power.
In the old country, people were getting paid regardless so 'everyone had work' and money was a secondary consideration. As local currency became less of a good proxy for power, it immediately became about relationships ( can you ensure make this bureaucrat assign this job/flat/whatever to me? ).
And as always, some people do get power and since it was communism, quite a lot of it. Not to search very far, police had tremendous amount of power.
Communism is just a name we gave to the system. People are the same everywhere.
A4ET8a8uTh0|4 years ago
People sometimes erroneously assume that money equals power. That may be true in the west, but a more accurate statement is that money is a good proxy for power. Absent that, power moves to another useful resource that can be bartered for power.
In the old country, people were getting paid regardless so 'everyone had work' and money was a secondary consideration. As local currency became less of a good proxy for power, it immediately became about relationships ( can you ensure make this bureaucrat assign this job/flat/whatever to me? ).
And as always, some people do get power and since it was communism, quite a lot of it. Not to search very far, police had tremendous amount of power.
Communism is just a name we gave to the system. People are the same everywhere.