The economy of abuse

The worst places are made that way by the worst people. Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe during the Cold War, concentration camps from Auschwitz to Magadan, present day Cuba and North Korea, the toughest prisons throughout history. The thing they have in common besides unimaginable agony is that they're all so-called "shortage economies".
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortage_economy

People are put to work by the authorities, but are hardly paid any wages. So what incentive do they have to work hard?
Free-market economies with property rights can offer potentially big rewards to people capable of competent work. In shortage economies, they can only offer tiny rewards, but also less pain for some. Surprisingly, that combination still works.
By underfeeding their populace, dictators can make them more compliant while increasing their own wealth. It gets otherwise useless people to obey. That's basically why the world sucks.

Once life has deliberately been made very bad, tiny rewards start to seem like a big deal. The promise of reduced torture gets people to listen very carefully. Shortage economies work precisely because they don't work. Or at least the people do, even if they are likelier to die from the abuse.
This post is about Scientology staff and Sea Org members by the way.