Socialism is what destroyed Venezuela. But how many kids today understand that? James M. Roberts at the Daily Signal writes:
[I]n a country where many young people are still enchanted by the Bernie Sanders message of socialism and free stuff, not enough attention has been paid to this simple fact: that in the real world—a world where bad people say good-sounding things to voters and then proceed to steal other people’s stuff once they take office—Venezuela is what you get when socialist theories are actually put into practice.
And the kids don’t know yet due to the conservative movement’s failure in the information war over the past few decades.
For a lot more about the situation in Venezuela, visit our Venezuela in the News page.
Here’s the opening of Roberts’ article:
Friedrich Hayek famously observed that socialist central planning puts countries on the road to serfdom.
The latest dead end on that highway to hell—already littered with the human victims of past failed attempts in places like Cuba and the old Soviet Union—is in Caracas, Venezuela.
That is where, last weekend, President Nicolás Maduro and the thousands of Cuban communists who actually run his government took the final step to squash the rights of individual Venezuelan citizens and impose an authoritarian dictatorship.
Hayek could have told us: It is the logical last act in the Venezuelan tragedy that began nearly 20 years ago with the election of Maduro’s mentor (and Fidel Castro’s protégé), Hugo Chavez.
As The Economist magazine reported earlier this year, the damage in Venezuela is extensive.
The economy has contracted dramatically—gross domestic product in 2017 will be nearly 25 percent smaller than when Chavez died in 2013. Hyperinflation—and the complete economic collapse it signals—seems to be just around the corner.
Inflation is predicted to exceed 1,600 percent this year and the value of the country’s currency—the bolivar—has plummeted. As wags on Twitter have noted, it is now worth less than the virtual gold tokens in the “World of Warcraft” video game.
Read more: The Daily Signal
Image credit: www.thedailysignal.com/Opposition protesters take to the streets of Caracas, Venezuela, during the National Assembly’s election on July 30. (Photo: EfrÃn DÃaz/newzulu/Newscom).
