Fascinating story on Yahoonews today. “Paradise for $20.” The nation of Venezuela was once a thriving, hard-working industrious outpost in South America. Then the country went hard-core socialist, with the elections of Hugo Chavez for more than a decade.
Chavez nationalized industries, drove out evil capitalists, and took command of the Venezuelan economy. Rationing, shortages, censorship, suffering and poverty soon followed.
And today the country is victim to such inflation (having printed so much money to “stimulate” itself in traditional Keynsian fashion) that almost any tourist can travel to Venezuala and live like a king among peasants. There are tales of lobster dinners for under a dollar, lodging at the country’s finest hotels for $5 a night, and guided trips into the rainforest for $25 a day. Hookers can reportedly be had for pennies.
We should wish socialism only on our enemies. Every society that embraces it will inevitably become sick and weak.
