That's what I was thinking. Some people do better under Marxism. The party members. And they don't see it as a scam, they see it as their reward for pushing such an awesome ideology (though officially, they claim it's they party's money, not theirs).

Once it takes hold, everyone else becomes either poor or dead. That's usually when the general population starts to realize they've been duped. But by that time, it's too late. They are kept poor at the barrel of a gun. Though this enslavement is psychological (the barrel of a gun only works on individuals, is not practical over the entire population). They could rise up and overthrow the communists at any time, they just have to realize they have that power if they do it all at once.