In 1960s Czechoslovakia they called this "beer and sausage socialism"... The leaders realized that the public would put up with ANYthing as long as they had access to cheap beer and sausage with currency to buy it.

This is what we have now "phone and EBT socialism"...

"Government at its best is a necessary evil, and at it�s worst, an intolerable one."
 Thomas Paine (from "Common Sense" 1776)