The reason I call the school supplies thing communism, is wet the confiscation of privately acquired materiel. The fewer steps refers to the school doing it directly, without the central planning. And the confiscation, and the resultant lower or inferior provision of goods for consumption, is exactly the problem most people have with communism. The fact that a central committee is doing the planning and unresponsive to conditions on the ground is more abstract.
Feudal is definitely the right description. But really, communism is a lot more like feudalism than Marx liked to believe, because both were attempts to control uncontrollable systems. Everyone likes to imagine that feudalism was some sort of plot of the patriarchy to create/protect privilege, but it's just as likely that it grew out of a cooperative division of labor. This group grows stuff, that group protects them. But when it came time to decide how much of the economic output the protectors needed, well, the arguments tend to get settled in favor of the side with the weapons, and that's where the aristocracy comes from. You can see the communalist roots of a lot of feudal practices, like restriction of hunting.
"That game is for everyone, stay out of the woods without permission from the authorities, whose experts will tell you which animals can/should be killed without endangering the population. When animals are hunted, at the discretion of the authorities, we will all share in the meat"
"That game belongs to the lord! How dare you take it for yourself, you grubby scum! You and your kind will be satisfied with the leftovers from his feast, and thank him for it."
(technically, feudalism wrt medieval history was more a case of warleaders trying to take over a failed state and subcontracting local government and military responsibility, but either way, you end up with lords & peasants)
And the same process is inevitable with communism. The people making the decisions decide, either innocently in response to unconscious self-interest & confirmation bias, or out of pure cupidity, that they happen to need a disproportionate amount of resources.
As for the school issues, I honestly had no idea it was that bad. My parents sacrificed a lot to put all seven of us, and for a few years, two foster kids, through parochial schools. Also, if you wanted a fancy Trapper Keeper, instead of the basic three-ring binders our grandfather got free at work, you had to buy it yourself (allowance? LOL. You don't get paid for basic chores that are a part of real life - you want to get paid, take over one of the grownup chores). So there were issues with envy and whatnot, because some kids had cooler stuff, but we survived.
But one thing about parochial schools with the uniforms, is that this was one area where there was no status or material difference. Everyone wore the exact same thing, purchased according to strict school guidelines from approved suppliers. In many classes, the list of required school supplies was also very specific and some teachers would confiscate unusual or extraneous items and send them home with a note saying "this is nice, but your kid can use the same things everyone else does, thx". Four-color pens? Not if one of them is red. Digital watch? As long as it doesn't beep in class. Elaborate pencil sharpener? Use the little safety case with a blade inside, or the grinder at the front of the room. Anything else is a distraction. White-out? Mistakes are for Protestants. But within the guidelines, you could get what you wanted, as long as your parents were willing.
My father was on the borough council for most of my childhood and there were times when people would demand he recuse himself from votes or discussions concerning the school on the grounds that he didn't have any children in the public school system (which wasn't true, all my younger siblings attended kindergarten there), to which he said fine, as long as he can also be recused from paying any taxes to support the place. Probably just a coincidence that we were one of the very few towns that ever managed to occasionally block a school budget and make them settle for less. One time, on a standardized vocational aptitude test in high school, my father was shocked to see I had selected as fields of interest "education" and "law enforcement" after all his years of butting heads with the school board and PBA, but I pointed out that being grossly overpaid for minimal effort was the dream, and he was the one who made me so those fields in that light.
My brother's father-in-law was a high school teacher who repeatedly was elected as the union's representative, always running on the slogan, "Vote for Tony and two weeks paid", because that was the 'punishment' he negotiated for every infraction by a teacher.
In our town currently, at the start of the school day, and at dismissal, two or three police officers station themselves at the school to help with the street crossings. There is also a crossing guard, employed by the borough, not the school district. In addition, starting this school year, we have a special police officer whose sole duty is to be on the grounds of the school, which relieves the patrol unit of have to make twice-daily "walk-throughs". This is a small suburban town of two square miles that has one school, and sends high school students to the next town over. There has never been a violent incident. The school is located on a two-lane "main street" (small office & local gov't buildings and houses, with a single restaurant) with two short residential streets to either side. But the full manpower of the police department is required to guard the place twice a day. For the record, there are a dozen patrol officers on a four shit rotation. 2 or 3 is the sum total patrolling the street on a given day. Want to whip through town at 90 mph on any road that does not pass the school? Do it at the beginning and end of the school day, because all the cops on-duty will be at the same address. All of this is at the insistence of the school. Meanwhile the crossing guard is being forced to retire despite the kids and parents working him, even though he just wanted to work through next year to reach a milestone on the job. Again, at the school's insistence. They don't pay him and there are multiple cops present, their cars parked at the crosswalks with lights flashing, so it's not like his age and possible infirmity somehow presents a threat to the kids. But nope. No final year so he can say he did 30 instead of 29. I just found out on Tuesday his replacement is the mother of a borough employee.
These are the streets that need multiple cops to secure:
No, the children require a short chubby woman in her 50s! The incumbent must retire, he is not fit to hold up a stop sign next to a police car with flashing lights and a cop standing at the end of the crosswalk.
Oh, and everyone's taxes shot up last year to pay for a remodel, ostensibly to address structural maintenance issues that have grown into an emergency since ignoring the prior mayor's warning the school that they needed to be nipped in the bud more than ten years ago.
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