[zajio1am]

> Start your own business? Sure, just pay the taxes and observe worker's rights.

Depends on country. I grew up in socialist Czechoslovakia and private businesses were almost unheard of (there were about several hundreds of small private businesses in country of 15M people). Most private tradesmen offered they services unofficially/illegally (in addition to their regular daily job).

From what i heard, regimes in Poland and Hungary were more lenient in this regard.

> But, being killed for not working? Never.

Killed in work camps? At most in 1950s. But regular prison sentences for not having a work still happened in 1970s and 1980s.

[prerok]

Maybe I misunderstood the statement I was responding to. I thought they said you were sent to work camps for not working :)

Sure political prisoners were sent to work camps. As long you did not speak against the regime you were safe, though.

[cema]

Really depends on the country. And in a country could friend on the city. For example, in the Soviet Union, Moscow was off limits to the people who did not have a permanent place to live (as registered in the internal passport). They were forced out but not necessarily imprisoned, just moved to "the 101st kilometer" (outside the 100 kilometer zone, that is). I think Leningrad was like that too. Even in the USSR it was uneven: Russian and I think Ukraine were like that, the Baltic republics were not, not sure about Central Asia.

These are all historical anecdotes, nothing more. No claim about it being or not being intrinsic to the socialist society etc.