The Other McCain

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The Socialist Catastrophe in Venezuela

Posted on | May 1, 2019 | 2 Comments

 

The dictator Maduro is still holding on, blaming “American imperialism” for the poverty his socialist regime has inflicted on Venezuela:

Venezuela is a human catastrophe. The evidence is brutally visible and can no longer be explained away by apologists for tyranny. So many people enamored with long-debunked theories had high hopes that for Venezuela — despite the enormous historical and empirical evidence to the contrary — the promise of socialism would work and would not lead to the loss of liberties or drive the once-prosperous nation into poverty. Looking back on the 20th century, we should turn to some of the most prominent thinkers who lived under similar conditions and dissected their experiences for us to learn from. Venezuela’s crisis is a good example of harsh lessons learned by one generation but forgotten by the next.
In 1944, Friedrich Hayek warned in The Road to Serfdom that tyranny inevitably results when a government exercises complete control of the economy through central planning. Over half a century later, beginning with Hugo Chávez’s revolution, Venezuela began its own road to serfdom by expropriating thousands of businesses and even entire industries. The more fortunate companies left before it was too late, while the businesses that remained were handed over to the Venezuelan military, under whose oversight they were neglected into ruins. In a typical demonstration of class warfare, the government publicly vilified these business owners as unpatriotic, greedy lackeys of American interests, claiming that Venezuela’s poverty had been a direct result of their existence.
Chavismo created an atmosphere of distrust in which no one felt safe enough to invest in Venezuela. More important, the courts were no longer the place to get redress. Since 1999, the Venezuelan judiciary had been systematically stacked with judges loyal to the executive. Twenty years after socialism took hold of the country, Venezuela has hit rock bottom on every possible development index. Today, 90 percent of Venezuelans are living below the poverty line and inflation rates exceed 1 million percent.

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)



 

Category: Venezuela

Comments

2 Responses to “The Socialist Catastrophe in Venezuela”

  1. Daybook. | Dark Brightness
    May 2nd, 2019 @ 3:38 am

    […] learn from Venezuela. You cannot eat a currency, You certainly cannot eat […]

  2. News of the Week (May 5th, 2019) | The Political Hat
    May 5th, 2019 @ 7:57 pm

    […] The Socialist Catastrophe in Venezuela The dictator Maduro is still holding on, blaming “American imperialism” for the poverty his socialist regime has inflicted on Venezuela […]