But ownership deeds are just a formality. Paper. They do nothing.

I grew up under a glorious Marxist-Leninist dictatorship. Formally, everything was owned by the people. In practice, this meant "by everyone but you". There were laws to make sure of that. 20 years prison for "theft of people's property" and stuff like that.

What was actually relevant for economic power, was not this hollow ownership thing, but the access to and the control over the actual resources. De facto, the bureaucratic aristocracy controlled everything, even the people. They always had the last decision.

The party elite decided which regions get the quality food and which only get cabbage, bread and potatoes. They decided which newspapers will have always enough paper and which will not be able to print at all on certain days. Which industries get priority supplies and which have to build their own replacement parts from scrap.

Most of these decisions made no sense economically, they were purely politically motivated, part of the aristocracy's internal power struggle. A small circle of old men, most of them backstabbing boot-lickers and claqueurs for the glorious Worker's Leader, had the power to decide what everyone else needs and deserves. And abused it to the fullest. What you own didn't matter. What mattered, was who you could ask for and trade "favors" with. Who you can destroy and who can destroy you. Real existing socialism.

You can probably imagine the effects of that on the national resource allocation efficiency. It was terrible. There were constant supply shortages. In everything, even the most basic of goods. Shoestrings, toothpaste, toilet paper, name it. And they always found a scapegoat. The class enemy, the counterrevolution, the capitalist fascists in the West, the Jews, invisible saboteurs, bad weather, good weather.

But despite all that, the elite could have personal monuments like the ancient god kings. And personal military parades at least once a year. In the name of the people. Owned by the people.