The importance being that of course they don’t have any. Even Cuba, a tropical island fer cryin’ out loud, is not replete with the freely growing tropical fruit.
All of this was well known in Germany and was even used as a marker of the difference between the two ruling systems.
… See MoreThat such a basic commodity was a luxury good in East Germany tells you all you need to know about that system’s manifest failings.
Just in case any have any doubts about how successful modern day socialism is or will be the case of Venezuela is instructive. The Bolivarian socialists decided to stick it to the man, overthrow capitalism and the tyranny of the market economy. At which point up to 5 million of the population have fled.
Do recall this is the system that was praised by Ken Livingstone, Jeremy Corbyn, Owen Jones and all points lefty:
More than 5m set to flee Venezuela by end of this year
OK, that’s a prediction:
The exodus has accelerated dramatically over the past three years as shortages of food, water and fuel grip Venezuela, a once wealthy oil-exporting nation which has been reduced to destitution by economic mismanagement under the socialist regime of Nicolás Maduro.
An interesting little survey from the United States showing that this idea of votes for women was a bad one. Or, to be a little less jocular about it, that there really are differences between men and women, on average and in general, and it’s not just the details of the plumbing arrangements.
Four in 10 Americans prefer socialism to capitalism, poll finds
That just shows that four in ten are either dim or ill informed.…
See MoreThis is what we must rather assume at least if we are to take seriously the argument on offer here. When a young disturbed white guy goes and shoots a people or two at a synagogue it’s ideology itself, that of white supremacy, that must be considered as the cause. That disgraceful action itself must be considered in the terms the shooter himself is using to explain why he’s doing it.
It’s not a matter of some young men being disturbed and using whatever to hang their disturbance on.…
See MoreThat we around here are against the banning or illegality of prostitution should be obvious. We’re liberals and thus rather in favour of the idea that consenting adults get to do as consenting adults wish. Sure, there might be all sorts of problems with prostitution – the underage, sexual slavery and so on. Yet is is also absolutely true that some fraction of men – a reasonable count being some 2 to 3% as regular behaviour – and some fraction of women are entirely happy with the legal options available to them.…
See MoreThe background to this finding, that living under socialism makes you more likely to cheat, under capitalism to be honest, should be obvious. Under socialism the appalling inefficiency of the economy means that cheating is the only way to either survive or get ahead. Even, that when everything is decided by politics then you’ve got to become a politician to do well and what’s more cheat-like than politics.
On the other hand under capitalism – which we should read here as being more free markets than capitalism itself – the method of getting ahead is to be honest.…
See MoreOf course that four day power cut in Venezuela is being blamed on the Yankee Imperialists for there never could be anything wrong with socialism, could there? And if you do want to reduce a nation and people to penury then that Bolivarian socialism does indeed seem to be the way to go. It’s proven very effective at it after all.
The thing being that it’s not the action of outsiders which has led to this disaster, it’s inherent in the basic economic design which has been imposed.…
See MoreIt’s entirely true that the economy isn’t everything. Our measures of GDP don’t include inequality or the value of a mother’s smile. They do include things like food supply, health care and the standard of living which are, even if not everything, pretty important things.
Meaning that we can indeed judge socioeconomic systems by their effects on GDP, even if we shouldn’t do so exclusively. At which point, Venezuela’s socialism is worse than Franco’s fascism:
Bolivarian socialism is worse than fascismDo note that the Bolivarian socialists didn’t actually have to fight a war to gain power either.…
See MoreGood news here for those who would see Bolivarian socialism as anything other than a total disaster – Venezuela’s inflation is only the 23rd worst hyperinflation so far. So far in that of course it can still get worse but also in that you just wait and see until Jezza gets elected.
So, you know, Huzzah and all that:
58 Episodes of Hyperinflation (Venezuela is #23)
In more detail:
At present, Venezuela is the only country experiencing a hyperinflation.
The basic problem with modern socialism is that it’s not actually socialism – it’s anti-marketism. Socialism itself, the idea that the people doing the producing should own the productive assets used to do the producing, well, why not? As long as it’s all voluntary who gets hurt by the existence of John Lewis? Anti-marketism is an entirely different thing and one that condemns us all to penury.
So, why conflate the two? As, in the problem, all too many do.…
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