In Eastern Europe under communism, you would be thrown in jail if you did not work. The official name of this crime was "parasitism", as you were not contributi

In Eastern Europe under communism, you would be thrown in jail if you did not work. The official name of this crime was "parasitism", as you were not contributing to society - this happened to an uncle of mine who had to serve one summer of hard labor for not finding work fast enough after graduating. That ticket that said you had a job and showed up each day was a life and death thing. It also famously happend to Joseph Brodsky -- sentenced to five years hard labor for parasitism when the authorities decided that being a poet did not constitute gainful labor. Also, if you missed a day of work, you better have a doctor's note. I once asked my parents what happened if you just didn't show up to work for a day and didn't have a doctor's note, and she looked at me and said "I don't think anyone dared to do that." Imagine being thrown in jail for calling in sick but not having a doctor's note to show your employer. Of course crimes like theft were punished a lot more severely than in the West, and the result was indeed very little of that type of crime. Of course having an extensive network of secret police and informants everywhere helped with that. But that's the difference between being the revolutionary trying to overthrow capitalism and being the nomenklatura trying to keep the shelves stocked once capitalism has been overthrown.