In an ideal communist scenario, all citizens work hard and everyone shares the fruits of their labor equally. What happens then if there is no fruit to be reaped, no matter how much effort has been made? This situation is shown in “Ah, Xiao Xie” and the workers did not receive any support. The narrator says, “our nonexistent power plant generated no profit, and because our wages had been reduced to the minimum humanly possible, most of us received several hundred yuan less per month” (188). Wen isn't saying it's an implausible concept; he is saying that it is only plausible when the economy is doing well and there are enough resources for everyone. If inadequate capital is produced, a problem arises: many people sharing scarce resources leaves everyone dissatisfied. Another symbol relating to this appears when only one bed is available for workers. Wen sees an opportunity to lie down on the bed, but shortly after, another worker enters the room. “Who the fuck are you? cry. Damn it, I'm going out to take a shit and someone's taken the bed!” (207). The single bed represents the issue of scarcity in communism; when times are tough, no one is willing to help because everyone has their equal share of problems. Workers serve as a representation of the common man in communist societies; they can barely make ends meet, and the government is