One thing I never understood about so called "communist" states is why they treated their workers so badly. You would think a workers' state would prioritize wo

One thing I never understood about so called "communist" states is why they treated their workers so badly. You would think a workers' state would prioritize workers' wellbeing above everything else, even to the detriment of other goals. In school, I wondered why the East German government beat down the workers movement so violently, and why they locked their citizens behind a wall. Surely they should have been very pro-union? The state should have done everything to keep their citizens happy, and if they wanted to leave, then why not just let them leave? After all, isn't the point of communism that the people are in charge? My teacher was baffled and couldn't understand my naive question :-D Now, my mental model of these "real socialist" states is that they are just degenerate capitalist dictatorships - namely, you only have one single capitalist, and that is the state itself. I find this explains a lot of their dysfunctionality.