That the bright ideas of socialists don’t always make a place better is something that the great experiment of the 20th century tells us. All we actually needed to do was look east from the Brandenburg Gate in 1989 to work that one out. But there’s something about the Teenage Trots, that they need to have the contention constantly re-proven rather than accepting the basic wisdoms of history. Which is why we need to keep waving those more modern proofs in their faces before they get to make these same improvements to our own lives.
Our latest example being that this Bolivarian socialism in Venezuela, it’s worked so excellently that it’s starting to ruin the country next door.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]’The strain is too much’: Venezuelan exodus has Brazil at breaking point[/perfectpullquote]Note that this is The Guardian saying this. We’re not in the realm of some right wing bigot insisting that a little redistribution, or the educating of poor children, is going to bring civilisation crashing down. This is a newspaper that largely supported what Chavez was trying to do and is only now turning to surveying the rubble of those attempts:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]With no end in sight to the five-year economic and political crisis that has left many struggling to survive, the exodus from Venezuela to its South American neighbours is relentless. Since 2014 more than two million people have fled to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil in the largest displacement of people in the continent’s history. About 98,000 Venezuelans have remained in Brazil, according to the UN.[/perfectpullquote]East Berlin was such a success they had to build a wall to keep the population in recall.
As to what went wrong, no, it’s not about the oil price collapse, it all started before that. It’s also not about the corruption of those currently in power although that also obviously doesn’t help. It’s about the idiot attempt to run an economy with government fixing the prices. That’s something which just doesn’t work, sorry, but it doesn’t. A point to recall when people argue for fair rents, minimum wages and maximum prices….
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But there’s something about the Teenage Trots, that they need to have the contention constantly re-proven rather than accepting the basic wisdoms of history.
It may have been Herodotus (and, if not, it was someone of that ilk) who observed that war only becomes possible when there are too few old people left who can remember the horrors of the last one. Much the same is true of socialist governmnets - and I fear we in the UK are rapidly nearing that tipping point.
This is an excellent reason for giving the vote to the people who arrived in the UK from former communist countries since 2002. It's not just the principle of having some representation for your taxation, but that the sort of worker in question knew what soviet socialism was like growing up.
Of course, the nationalist movement would still rather they not have the vote in UK general elections until they hand over another £1k for citizenship.
Do people *really* not know about Iron Curtain Europe? It was on the bloody television for glod's sake! Have they proffered any explanation for why so many were so desperate to escape?