compare and contrast: capitalism and communism

Once upon a time, when a country called "Czechoslovakia" existed, my teacher
told me about a man, a surrealist.  She told me that he performed the necessary
work which he had to do----and I assumed then it was some kind of menial labor assigned to him as a punishment for his intellectual independence---and, then, after that, he went on to do his own work---which I took to mean his creative accomplishments. 

Compare that story of repression and gray life with the following;

Just today, I've gotten another job notice about a job at a university in California,
and, once again, there are words to the effect:  We are looking for candidates who will continue to think about the job outside of the classroom......

So, if (contrary to fact and totally impossibly) our Czech surrealist had gotten such a job at a California university, he might not have had the time to produce the books and poetry which he did produce........ (And while he was not writing poetry, he would have been expected to smile and say "I love what I am doing.")

Is this progress?

NOTE/CORRECTION  (added 1 June 2013)
I neglected to mention that the jobs in question (and there have been many) are part-time and/or temporary!  So, you are expected to work part-time, presumably without health insurance---and when you are not officially working, you are still working!  Now, that's a new form of slavery.