This reminds me of a part in Barbara Demick's book Nothing to Envy, which is based on interviews from people who escaped from North Korea (emphasis mine obvious

This reminds me of a part in Barbara Demick's book Nothing to Envy, which is based on interviews from people who escaped from North Korea (emphasis mine obviously): > A North Korean soldier would later recall a buddy who had been given an American-made nail clipper and was showing it off to this friends. The soldier clipped a few nails, admired the sharp, clean edges, and marveled at the mechanics of this simple item. Then he realized with a sinking heart: if North Korea couldn’t make such a fine nail clipper, how could it compete with American weapons? For one North Korean student it was a photograph in the official media showing a South Korean on a picket line. The photograph was meant to illustrate the exploitation of the worker in capitalist society; instead the student noticed that the ‘oppressed’ worker wore a jacket with a zipper and had a ballpoint pen in his pocket, both of which were luxuries at the time.