Imagine that you have money but you cannot buy anything, because shops are totally empty! Typical situation in communist Poland.
Probably so. It was also typical in many parts of Russia except for the ruling elite and a few others. But I was warned to stay out of that kitchen and think I'd better not get into it any further.
I can only imagine the reverse because I lived it to some extent for long years. The shops were full and I didn't have very much money. My father helped us. Without that, I don't think I could have made it, even on welfare which I wasn't. I just could not earn enough money in a full-time job to pay all the bills, and there was nothing for any luxury items of any type like film processing of pictures of my children. I didn't have the skills to survive on welfare, could not have kept any kind of car going without trading sex for somebody to fix it, etc. We wouldn't have starved on food stamps, but I would have had to live in some hellhole.