I have been to a communist country. It is exactly what you would expect. Malnourished people, everyone is sad looking and everything is run down.
I had many friends who, luckily, were able to escape from communism. Multiple families living in unheated homes, lack of food, everything was garbage.
I asked one of them what made their parents defect. It was when her father came to America for an exchange program. He went into a grocery store. A grocery store is what made him defect.