Venezuela – A Full Basket to a Basket Case in a Single Generation
Originally written in November 2015. They are still a basket case.
Ayn Rand hoped her novel Atlas Shrugged would not become prophesy, sadly this is almost literally out of its pages, right down to the irony of the Act’s name:
“Recently, the Venezuelan government unveiled the latest installment of its surreal economic-interventionism saga. In updating the Fair Prices Act, the Nicolás Maduro administration decided to fix the price of one of the most highly consumed basic-food products, a pack of 30 eggs, at 420 Bs. (US$0.50).”
And at least some are starting to shrug:
“Anyone with a modicum of respect for himself and his work would refuse to sell at a loss. Case in point: in Falcón state, the owner of a grocery store decided to break his eggs instead of complying with the government mandate.”
In a single generation, Venezuela has gone from an above average mixed economy, where business was still substantially free to produce and profit, where most citizens had a good standard of living – to a complete basket case with empty store shelves, starving people and worthless money.
As soon as Hugo Chavez started implementing his tired discredited socialist program, it was easy to predict this would be the end result, and many did. I’ve commented for years on Facebook and other places this was where it was headed, and it really only takes a very basic, but correct, understanding of supply and demand, the price system, and human nature, to make that prediction.
This insane experiment with socialism/communism has been replayed so many times over the last century it is ridiculous for anyone to continue believing that it is a good and moral theory that just needs to be implemented correctly and that in every other case, from Lenin, to Mao, to Castro, to Chavez, they have just failed to do it right. THERE IS NO WAY TO DO IT RIGHT!
There is no way to make an economic theory based on sacrifice (altruism) produce wealth and prosperity. Eventually it ends up not even being able to feed its people and comes to depend on the remaining freer nations to donate food and every other good. That has been true in EVERY case.
It is almost [now more than] 100 years since Lenin established the Soviet Socialist Republic. After a 100% failure rate in nation after nation, with the resulting death of an estimated 100 million, to still insist that socialism is in any way better, right, or moral, takes either massive evasion or a genuine hatred for mankind and the good.
Many of course will protest they don’t want an all out socialist system like this, they only want a little socialism to temper what they mistakenly believe are “excesses” of capitalism – that capitalism is somehow evil and needs to be controlled. That is like saying they just want a little poison with their food because pure food is evil.