Iirc, people in Soviet breadlines had money, but supply was limited and prices not allowed to follow demand. Money to spend, but nothing to buy.

Discovered something fun this week, in Norwegian the word for employer is “work-giver”, but a bit of digging revealed that the alternative “work-buyer” existed but went out of use. I think people would sell their time and labor for more if the wording more clearly revealed the actual relationship.