As a Russian co-worker once told me, "Americans have a silly idea about
communism. It wasn't that if you told a joke about Brezhnev, the secret police
would arrest you--it was that you'd lose your job. And in Russia, there were no
other jobs." When the government controls your paycheck, your housing, and your
ration card, it doesn't need to put you in jail; you are in jail.
Megan McArdle
