Feel The Bern! Socialist Venezuela, Land of No Toilet Paper, No Diapers, & Terrible Healthcare

by Greg Campbell | November 30, 2015 4:46 pm

I was just a kid when the Soviet Union fell, but I spent years attempting to understand the supposed logic of collectivism. Time and time again, our world is reminded about the failures of collectivist ideologies such as communism, Marxism and socialism. However, the modern American left is devoutly socialist and for some inexplicable reason, America is considering the possibility of embracing socialism. A look at Venezuela should indicate why that is such a bad idea.[1]

[2]

Wow! Socialism doesn’t work? Who would have thought it. CNBC reported that the revolution is ailing even in Chavez’ hometown.

Even the orange tree in Hugo’s backyard which he named ‘revolution’ is infested with something. Nicolas Maduro, Hugo’s successor, planted an orange tree in the same yard and that’s infested too.

What a perfect metaphor for the effects of the far-left ideology when put into action.

‘The Beautiful Revolution’ is even unpopular in Hugo’s hometown of Sabaneto.

Corruption, dysfunction, over-control, rampant inflation – 68%, the near-collapse of the bolivar, and the end of the oil bonanza, the corrupt government didn’t make use of, has brought the country to its knees.

Scarcity of basic goods, such as toilet paper, beer, and diapers, a shortage of plane tickets for those who dare to flee the country, and a national currency that is barely worth more than monopoly money are the fixtures of Venezuela’s 21st-century socialist economy.

Venezuelans line up for hours in the hope a truck will come by with rice or toilet paper. Salaries are in the sewer and many barricade themselves in their homes because crime is out of control.

“We were ‘Chavistas’,” said Julio Coromoto, 57, a workman next to a queue of dozens at a shabby supermarket in Hugo’s hometown.

“But they destroyed this town.”

The socialists might lose the majority in the National Assembly in the election this week for the first time since Chavez took over in 1999.

The propaganda has taken the form of Hugo billboards, Hugo speeches on TV and re-naming of voting centers after Hugo because he is still popular.

The healthcare system is crumbling, drugs are scarce for the most serious illnesses and diseases exposing tens of thousands to disease. In the 1960s, Venezuela was relatively free of malaria but ‘revolution’ and its consequent poverty, inadequate housing, and lack of medical planning have brought it back, Vice News[3] reported and the government is trying to cover it up.

So much for universal healthcare.

People have been forced to use a wide range of medicines for animals, from steroids to antibiotics and creams for skin conditions. Even some transplant patients are turning to the pet drugs to prevent their bodies from rejecting their new organs, according to Vice News.

Venezuela makes the decisions about what products are sold and at what price. In a free market, the people decide and they are free to make decisions about savings, investment, production and consumption.

Socialist regimes seek to clamp down on the behavior of prices in a free market. Their leaders consider that only the centralized government apparatus should determine prices.

The free market price system is a threat to all types of centralized control, but especially to a centralized control of the economy such as that practiced by totalitarian, socialist, or communist regimes. They ignore the subjective value of products.

Marxists believe that that the amount of work which a product requires must determine its price, and that the most expensive goods must be those completed with the greatest amount of work

Economic mismanagement, compounded by the recent plunge in prices, has created serious problems for the oil business, analysts say and as Fox News[4] reported.

Following a 2002-2003 strike, Chavez drove out thousands of workers at PDVSA Gas and bloated its payrolls with government supporters who lacked training and experience. As he drained a windfall from record oil prices to spend on social projects, the company fell behind on its bills and investment slowed. The result, analysts say, has been a steady decline in production from 3.3 million barrels a day in 1998, the year before Chavez took office, to the current estimated 2.4 million barrels.

Maduro might have to sell Citgo and raise oil prices in a country filled with crude oil.

The processes used to refine oil have improved and the demand for Venezuela’s crude is never going to be what it was.

“There can be no socialism if our country doesn’t have control of its resources,” Chavez declared on May Day 2007, announcing he would rip up contracts with foreign oil companies worth billions of dollars. And so went foreign investment.

Chavez and then Maduro chased foreign investment out of the country though they were already fleeing and it’s going to be hard to get it back though that is what they need – desperately.

Venezuela can’t handle containerized cargo and major carriers have cut deliveries.

There is no private sector to pick up the slack. The private sector is virtually out of business because importers have extremely little access to hard currency and price controls erase profitability – and the government no longer has the buying power to keep up the pace, JOC reported[5].

Socialism always ends in death and destruction.

Luis Diaz, a leader of opposition Democratic Action party in central Guarico state, was killed days before the election that Maduro’s party might lose. Diaz was shot dead at a Wednesday rally, according to Reuters[6].

Within a century-and-a-half, America became the economic powerhouse of the entire world thanks largely to the economic miracle of capitalism.

In contrast, in just a few short decades, socialism destroyed Venezuela.

Now, instead of embracing a return to our capitalist roots, too many Americans are considering the  path taken to destruction by Venezuela.

#Insanity

(h/t Weaselzippers[7])