[nickpp]

You mean like negotiating their pay, changing their employer or even the city they lived in? Those simple things were completely impossible under communism: the only employer was The State and you needed papers to move.

Of course things were different if you were part of the nomenklatura (leading party) or the secret police. You were a winner in communism then.

[ivan_gammel]

Changing employer or city was certainly possible. I do not think you are really familiar with history of SU.

[meerita]

Of course it was, but I am not talking about possibilities, but more on the probabilities side, just to point out:

In a socialist regime, job assignments are made by the state. The state controls most industries and companies, and is responsible for assigning jobs to citizens. However, there may be corruption in the system where individuals in positions of power use their influence to give jobs and favors. It's important to note that the reality of socialist systems can vary significantly depending on the country or region in question and may have different characteristics than described.

But the basics of the corruption system is the same. In fact, low level officials traded jobs, cigarettes, food, for sex if it was a woman who wanted a favor or a job, and rubles if they were males, there are accounts of men giving their wives in order to obtain promotions, jobs, or moving to a another city.

In Venezuela as an example, or Cuba, it happens the same. Citizens don't deal with the State, they deal with low level officials who have the veto power. Basically you become a slave.

[dragonwriter]

> In a socialist regime, job assignments are made by the state.

In a socialist system, the workers exercise control of the means of production, and, as a consequence, of industry.

There are models of socialism where this control is exercised centrally through the state, but it is controversial within socialism. It is widely known because a branch of socialist theory that attempted to adapt Marxist theory (itself one particular corner of socialism) to avoid capitalist development as a prerequisite was influential with groups that haf some success establishing control of various states and implemented it, but it is not the only model of socialism.

So, yes, in the USSR this is a (gross simplification of) the system, but it is not general to “socialism”.

[ivan_gammel]

> In a socialist regime, job assignments are made by the state

This is a generic and oversimplified statement that does not apply to Soviet Union. Its history is divided into several periods in some of which mobility of workforce was severely restricted (1940—1956), but not most of the time. You only had to have work, but moving to a different job or different city was certainly possible with 2 weeks notice period (in modern Germany typical contract requires 3 months notice). Some HR departments in manufacturing even had to solve the retention problem due to high churn.

If you want to study history, do not go to nearby book store, read real historians instead.

[estaset]

Becoming a multi-millionaire nowadays is possible, too. Why aren't you one?