You have to understand that at the time communism was a real option. And while we now think they lived in poverty and so on, they didn't really have much worse

You have to understand that at the time communism was a real option. And while we now think they lived in poverty and so on, they didn't really have much worse conditions than the rest of europe right after the war. So governments had to do social reforms to avoid revolutions. The fact that now communism is no longer considered a viable option by most people is why now capitalism can go unchecked and reveal its true face.