Thinking for some reason today of all the horror stories I was told about Eastern European socialist countries to characterise them as rapidly failing states.

"Systems and products never worked, despite all the glowing propaganda; people just shrugged and accepted it."

"Jobs and contracts were granted based on who you knew, not what you knew."

"Friends and family of the party could get whatever they liked, everyone else struggled even to get housing, food, and essentials."

"Unbiased reporting was nonexistent; the media just printed endless propaganda."

"You could be grabbed off the street by police for saying the wrong thing."