Socialists and government trusters are seeing all of their proposed policy ideas implemented in Venezuela. And the results are predictable.
The South American socialist regime has driven out most productive industries. Inflation is way above 200 percent. Starvation and disease are rampant. Basic commodities cannot be found. Millions have fled. Men die in brutal fights over coins. Women prostitute themselves on the streets for water, fruit, toothpaste, or diapers.
Now, in an effort to fight inflation, the Venezuelan dictatorship has ordered that all stores (which have been mostly nationalized) must give their employees a 60 percent pay increase. And the stores are forbidden from raising prices. Anyone caught criticizing the new policies is subject to imprisonment.
The new impositions are crushing retailers. Some 40 percent are now closed and refusing to operate. (Next the government will likely decree that the store managers are slaves and must reopen.) See here.
