Commie Christmas in Venezuela

Commie Christmas in Venezuela

Venezuela differs from other countries run on Marxist principles in that people are allowed to celebrate Christmas. However, Christmas under socialism is not quite the same as under economic freedom. It is not so much about giving as it is about taking:

Seeking to spread some cheer, President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government has set aside its distaste for consumerism and sent a small army of bureaucrats and soldiers to force more than 200 retail stores in Caracas to hold Christmas sales.

The coercive sales require businesses to sell their merchandise without making the profit they require to survive. Fumes Juan Vieira, owner of a shoe store,

“If we keep going at this rate, I’ll run out of shoes this month. I’m about to go bankrupt and close.”

Vieira, 54, already lost one shoe store in 2010, when the government of Maduro’s late mentor, Hugo Chavez, expropriated the building where it was located.

Maduro has imposed Christmas sales before:

In 2013, he forced a household appliance chain to slash its prices by up to 70 percent. The company survived, but some stores’ shelves were still bare as much as a year later.

Sometimes you could almost get the impression that it’s not wise to let a strongman meddle in how private companies do business.

More yuletide tyranny:

Venezuela’s socialist government has seized nearly 4 million toys from a private company and says it intends to hand them out as Christmas gifts to poor children this holiday season.

The country’s fair pricing authority seized the toys from three warehouses run by Kreisel, Venezuela’s largest toy distributor, on Friday. Two company executives were detained on suspicion of promoting price speculation.

Trying to make a profit can get you in big trouble under collectivist regimes.

Agency director William Contreras … said the seizure would teach companies “that you can’t play with the rights of Venezuelans.”

Such as everyone’s right to everyone else’s property.

Authorities said local supply committees will be in charge of distributing the toys “fairly” to children.

Among leftists, “fairly” always means that someone else pays.

In the short term, unprincipled people will be pleased to receive discount shoes and free toys, regardless of the injustice. But if this continues, before long there won’t be any shoes or toys, since Big Government doesn’t permit making a profit by providing them. The only real equality under socialism is that in the long term, everybody except the government loses.

It would be nice to think the rest of the world is learning from Venezuela’s lesson regarding letting government grow too large and powerful. But the lesson has been taught many times before, and still people believe that unfettered centralized coercion only hurts others and will benefit themselves.

pregnant-shopping-venezuela
Socialist shopping. Only garbage stays free.

On tips from Torcer, Bodhisattva, and R F. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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