Recurring historical pattern - Collectivism

[MrSmith]

What is a recurring historical pattern that shows up wherever political power is centralized and insulated from consent and competition.

In the Soviet Union, party elites lived in closed cities with better housing, imported food, private medical care, and access to goods unavailable to ordinary citizens. While official doctrine promised equality, the nomenklatura system quietly created a ruling class with privileges enforced by law and police power. This wasn’t a bug. It was how the system functioned.

In Maoist China, senior Communist Party members had access to special food supplies, better healthcare, and protected housing during periods when tens of millions of rural citizens faced famine. Political rank determined survival odds. Again, not an accident.
In Venezuela, government officials and connected insiders gained access to subsidized dollars, imported goods, and protected businesses while average citizens waited hours for food, medicine, or fuel. Hyperinflation destroyed savings for the public, while those closest to power insulated themselves through control of distribution.

In Cuba, party officials and military leaders lived in restricted zones with better services, while ordinary Cubans survived on ration cards. Tourism areas operated under a different economic reality than the neighborhoods most citizens were not allowed to leave.

The common thread across these systems is not intentions. Many leaders claimed compassion and equality. The common thread is incentives. When a group gains monopoly control over law, resources, and enforcement, they face no competitive pressure to serve the public. Costs are socialized. Benefits are concentrated. Exit is restricted. Accountability becomes performative.

Markets and voluntary systems are not perfect, but they contain feedback. If a business exploits people, it loses customers. If it wastes resources, it goes bankrupt. Political monopolies lack those mechanisms. Failure is funded. Power compounds. Distance between rulers and ruled grows.

This is why you consistently see walls, guards, restricted zones, special stores, and separate living standards in centralized systems. The image captures something history keeps confirming. Equality of rhetoric paired with inequality of power produces inequality of outcomes.

The lesson isn’t about labels. It’s about structure. Systems built on voluntary cooperation constrain abuse through choice and competition. Systems built on coercion concentrate privilege behind authority. Every time.