-
Subscribe Today!
Feb
9
Socialist Venezuela Crumbles As Chavez’s Failures Mount
Filed Under Hugo Chavez, economy, liberalism, socialism
To prevent mistakes in the future, it is always necessary to look to the past.
Wherever it has been tried, history shows socialism eventually fails as governments prove to be inferior to the guiding hand of the marketplace. The failures can be seen in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Cuba. Wherever it has been tried, socialism has proven to be inferior because it ends up destroying the little people who face shortages and despair while the new elites gorge on the spoils of complete control.
Venezuela dictator Hugo Chavez and his country are learning the hard way as socialism’s failures grind what should be a paradise — Venezuela has oil riches — into the ground with economic and social problems.
The elite get luxuries denied to the masses who face food shortages while nationalized industries fail to produce the goods and services needed to grow the economy. Alcohol flows as a way to numb the pain when food is in short supply. Violent crime is up while hope wanes. Underground economies spring up to fill the gaps. Those who don’t go along with the program face the wrath of Hugo Chavez’s soldiers who use fear and intimidation to keep people in line.
Simon Romero of the New York Times reports how socialism is failing the citizens of Venezuela:
These should be the best of times for Venezuela, blessed with the largest conventional oil reserves outside the Middle East and oil prices near record highs. But this country’s economic and social problems have become so acute lately that President Hugo Chávez is facing an unusual onslaught of criticism, even from his own supporters, about his management of the country. …
Mr. Chávez, for perhaps the first time since a recall vote in 2004, is increasingly on the defensive as his efforts to advance Venezuela toward socialism are seen as failing to address a growing list of worries like violent crime and shortages of basic foods.
While Mr. Chávez remains Venezuela’s most powerful political figure, his once unquestionable authority is showing signs of erosion. …
“I cannot find beans, rice, coffee or milk,” said Mirna de Campos, 56, a nurse’s assistant who lives in the gritty district of Los Teques outside Caracas. “What there is to find is whiskey — lots of it.”
The contrast between revolutionary language and the consumption of imported luxury items by a new elite aligned with Mr. Chávez’s government, known as the “Bolivarian bourgeoisie,” has led to questioning of the priorities of his political movement. …
Pedro E. Piñate, an agricultural consultant in the city of Maracay, said: “We live in two countries, one inhabited by officials who think they can alter reality by sending soldiers to intimidate citizens. The other country is where the rest of us live in fear of being killed or kidnapped or of our businesses being seized.”
- I always wondered what it was that had Hollywood’s elites flocking to spend time with dictator Hugo Chavez. Are Hollywood’s...
- Reports Simon Romero in a New York Times article titled In Chávez Territory, Signs of Dissent: “(Hugo) Chávez is delirious...
- Never count out younger generations. Students are standing up to Venezuela’s dictator Hugo Chavez, reports Mary Anastasia O’Grady in today’s...
- Hugo Chavez consolidates his power by taking property from its owners to redistribute to the masses in what some have...
- Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have joined forces and are now “united like a single fist.” “Here are two brother...
Comments
2 Responses to “Socialist Venezuela Crumbles As Chavez’s Failures Mount”
Leave a Reply
As we’ve seen so many times before, freedom and opportunity will alwasy win over despotism and socialism and all the other “isms”
It’s time for the people to rise up and demand democracy, when the people demand it for themselves, we’ll be happy to help them learn how.
Hi Steve,
Very true.
We have to keep an eye out that socialism — in the form of progressive control over large sectors of our economy in the name of helping those who don’t have — doesn’t destroy the little people while assisting the would-be new elites to gain new found power and riches.
The poor always stay poor in systems that supposedly are designed to help them by taking wealth from someone else.