What should the communists pay be? The ones that say doctors should be paid 3-4 times the pay of janitors?
"From each according to his ability...to each according to his needs."
Why should doctors "need" to live a better lifestyle than anybody else?
It was called the Kremlin ration. It was paid in special, non-inflated rubles linked to gold. And it carried with it the right to shop in special shops that carried goods unavailable to your average Rooskie.
Leonid Brezhnev's mother was still alive when he assumed the top job in the Soviet Union. This gave rise to a joke in which she visits her son:
"This is my house," said Brezhnev, showing her around. "And this is my car. And that's my swimming pool. And this" — he shows her some photographs — "is my second house. And this is my aeroplane. And this is my villa on the Black Sea. And this is my yacht!" His mother gasps in wonder."You do live well, Lyonechka," she says. "But I am nervous for you. What if the Bolsheviks come back?"