teacher told me so

Just so that you don't think I'm some crazy foreigner who ethnocentrically judges the socialist country to be wrongly inefficient for the purpose of job creation, I wanted to share that my teacher (who is local) agrees with me.

In class we learned the word for "elevator operator." Now, don't think bellhop at a swanky hotel. There is a elevator operator in my friend's apartment complex that is, to put it gently, a rundown building that would be condemned in America. It's also ridiculous because the elevators are so small you can barely fit 8 people in there. With the elevator operator, her chair, phone, and space heater- you knock out the possibility of at least 2 people (or 1 western-sized person).

I straight out asked her why elevator operators even exist, and she blatantly said, "They need a job." And laughed. yup. laughed. I'm so on with this one.