A defining characteristic of socialism in all its forms in all places and
at all times is a relatively small political elite (and its “private sector” cronies)
that lives lavishly by plundering its population, destroying its economy,
imposing a regime of equality of poverty and misery; and turning almost
everyone into a dependent on the state for survival. Joseph Stalin was
the wealthiest man in the world during his time, not the Rockefellers,
Morgans, or anyone else, as the de facto “owner” of the entire Soviet
Union. African and Latin American socialist political thugs in the
“post-colonial era” have long been notorious for becoming millionaires or billionaires,
with Swiss bank accounts galore, while their people starved and begged them
for subsistence. Socialism’s one percenters make today’s Wall Street
plutocrats seem impoverished by comparison.
The latest glaring example of the disgusting and immoral corruption of
socialism’s one percenters is Venezuela, a country that has “long been the
darling of the [socialist] Left,” according to a June 16 article in the Daily
Mail. The article, authored by Jake Wallis Simons, has the
headline: “Super-rich socialists quaff champagne in Venezuelan country
clubs while middle-class mothers scavenge for food in the gutter . . . even
the dogs are starving.”
Venezuelan socialism, known as “Chavismo,” after the wealthy socialist one
percenter Hugo Chavez, has indeed destroyed the country’s economy.
Thanks to government-imposed price controls that hold prices below costs,
supermarkets are empty, everything is in short supply or simply
unavailable, and middle-class people are literally “rummaging in stinking
piles of rubbish for cabbage leaves . . . and fetid meat,” according to the Daily
Mail article, which includes dozens of pictures of these pathetic
scenes. Among the most disturbing pictures are those of starving dogs
and other animals in this socialist “paradise.”
Nationalization, price controls, and suffocating government regulations
have so destroyed the remnants of capitalism that hospitals can’t afford
toilet paper, let alone medicine; people wait in queues for ten our twelve
hours a day, just like in the old Soviet Union, in hopes of buying something
– anything – that might come up for sale in hopes of trading it for things
they actually need; there is raging hyperinflation as the government tries to
print money like mad to continue paying for its socialist fantasies; and
crime is the worst of anywhere on earth. One middle-class woman is quoted
in the article as saying “Chavez’s legacy is people like me looking for food
in the garbage.”
Black markets are pervasive, also just like the old Soviet Union, but the
wealthy make out the best from this situation because only they can afford to
pay the astronomically higher black-market prices or to pay the bribes
demanded by black marketeers. The politically-connected socialist elite
lives high on the hog, entertaining themselves quite lavishly at such places
as the Caracas Country Club, where the membership fee alone is almost 500
times
the average annual salary of a middle-class Venezuelan worker. The Daily
Mail article is adorned with pictures of “lavish parties and tables
groaning with gourmet food.” It quotes one wealthy Chavez crony as saying,
“Should we stop enjoying ourselves just because the country is
burning?” Well, of course not. (This reminded me of the scene in
“History of the World, Part II” where Mel Brooks, portraying the
revolutionary-era King of France, is approached by an alarmed aid who says:
“Sire, the peasants are revolting!” To which the “king”
answers: “They certainly are”).
“Those rich people are thieves,” says the woman quoted by the Daily
Mail. “They are government cronies and they stole the country’s money .
. . . We had a socialist revolution and these are the results.”
“I feel cheated. Our socialist dream is falling apart,” said another
pathetically-duped victim of Bernie Sanders/Hugo Chavez-style socialism.
Meanwhile, according to a recent poll, 46 percent of American
“millennials” say they could vote for a socialist for president, who they
believe would end political cronyism, “get money out of politics,” and
redistribute the wealth of the politically-connected one percenters to
them. This, of course, is complete nonsense and an expression of
extreme ignorance. As F.A. Hayek explained in his classic, The
Road to Serfdom, the reality is that under socialism, “the only
power worth having is political power.” It is capitalism, private
property, and markets that provide the most potential for economic
opportunity, economic advance based on merit, hard work, savings,
entrepreneurship, and individual initiative. Who says the government
schools are not teaching the kids much these days?
The Best of
Thomas DiLorenzo
