Communist “Perks” for the Proletariat

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Young generations today believe that communism is a much better form of government than capitalism. Their strong beliefs come from the fact that they have never studied communism in public schools and have no idea what happened to the population at large, the so-called proletariat under the oppressive regime of Bolsheviks.

All young Americans know is the indoctrination they received from their teachers who told them that in communism all their needs will be met, and they would never have to work for this faux security blanket which the government will provide.

Those who survived communism and those who were lucky enough to escape it know the heavy price they had to pay for living under the oppressive boot of the Communist Party.

What kind of “perks” did we receive from the Communist Party? For starters, they confiscated our guns by saying that we do not need them, we would be protected by the party. We just did not imagine at the time that we would be on the end of the raised guns if we did not obey their orders and laws.

The villagers’ parcels of land were confiscated without any payment and, if they had too much land, they were sent to prison and hard labor camps for being “bourgeois.” One uncle went to a lead mine for 17 years and another went to prison for 7 years. Grandpa escaped because he was smart enough to deed parcels of his land to his six children. They were still confiscated but he did not go to prison.

All jewelry, gold, coins, and cash were also confiscated; if the people tried to protest, they were summarily shot. If some had precious paintings that had been in the family for generations, their decreed “illicit” possessions were also confiscated and distributed to the homes of the upper echelon and faithful Communist Party leaders. And these fancy homes were the confiscated homes of citizens they sent to jail for having too many possessions.

Villagers were crowded near each other in order that the land be used strictly for agriculture for the benefit of the Communist Party and their scheme of hard currency exportation to the West of the best grain harvested on these lands.

One American politician who visited Romania during its communist heyday, asked from an airplane flying over Romania, upon seeing endless fields of wheat and corn, where are the farmers’ homes? He had no idea that they had all been herded into villages and their isolated farm homes destroyed. He did not get an answer, the translators accompanying him remained silent.

Another “benefit” of the proletariat was that they all received about the same pay regardless of qualifications or degrees. This forced most people, to survive, to look for other ways to make extra money:

-         Black market selling of extra food purchased legally or illegally.

-         Hoarding food even though it was punishable by law, then selling it for confiscatory prices.

-         Barter with stolen goods from the factories in which they worked; when certain individuals, who did not share what they had stolen with others, were found out, they were made harsh examples for the rest and were sent to jail as a theft deterrent. It never worked; people continued to steal to survive.

-         Bacșiș (bribes) for medical care, lab tests, x-rays, hospital stays, hotel rooms, tickets, beauty services, medicines in pharmacies, and even medical excuses to avoid going to work, longer post-natal stays at home with full pay, and many other bribes.

-         Doctors and other medical personnel received envelopes with “walking around money” which patients and their families carried to make sure that they received timely and proper medical treatment; the patients’ name was inscribed on the envelope. When my daddy died, his sister demanded the 5,000 lei which his doctor had pocketed to take better care of him. Since no medical care was given to him, she demanded the money back.

If one was not on the take, they were either stupidly poor and hungry, or honest to a fault, like my daddy. Today “bacșiș” is legal in restaurants, it is posted on the bill and represents 10 percent of the bill.

An important “privilege” of the proletariat was to stand in interminable lines for food and basics daily to find bread, dairy, and other items in short supply such as toilet paper, cooking oil, and medicine.

Each family member stood in one designated line daily. Even small children stood in lines and learned at an early age to be responsible and not leave their place.

It galls me when people in this country accuse us of “white privilege.” That was my “white privilege,” living poorly, starving, and standing in lines. Nobody gave us generous welfare. We had to be responsible for our own survival and it had nothing to do with skin color.

In summertime we had the “choice” to buy produce from peasants who grew a few extras in their home gardens. The prices were steep, and the average salary barely covered a family’s survival expenses even though natural gas and electricity prices were subsidized. We were not paid enough and never had enough food, medicine, heat, hot water, and medical care.

Like the skinny dog whose master just gave him enough food to survive from day to day, citizens living in misery became dependent on their Communist Party masters and had to chase food every day to survive.

Last, but a "perk" nevertheless, was the subsidized vacations by yourself once a year at the government-sanctioned spas where one took the mineral waters "cure." Spouses vacationed separately as only one spouse was allowed to buy the subsidized vacation ticket.

There was a minority group who were paid informants of the Communist Party; they lived well, shopped at special stores reserved for the members and were paid extra for their snitching. Shamefully, they often snitched on their own families for more crumbs. The communist life was a survival of the fittest existence.