Socialism is an economic failure. International socialism didn’t work in the Soviet Union. National socialism didn’t work in Germany. And democratic socialism, while avoiding the horrors of its communist and Nazi cousins, also has been a flop.
There’s a famous Winston Churchill quote that basically says that the ostensible problem with capitalism is that people aren’t equally rich, whereas the supposed attractiveness of socialism is that people get to be equally poor.
The Princess of the Levant sent me a visual version of Churchill’s quote, and it’s definitely worth sharing.
Both the Churchill quote and the above image are very entertaining. And they effectively make the point that statism is very bad for ordinary people. That being said, they’re not actually accurate.
Sure, the masses are equally impoverished by socialist systems, but a handful of people escape this fate. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the government elites have very comfortable lives. And that may be the understatement of the century, as indicated by this report in the U.K.-based Daily Mail. Here are some very relevant passages.
The daughter of Hugo Chavez, the former president who once declared ‘being rich is bad,’ may be the wealthiest woman in Venezuela, according to evidence reportedly in the hands of Venezuelan media outlets.
Maria Gabriela Chavez, 35,…holds assets in American and Andorran banks totaling almost $4.2billion… Others close to Chavez managed to build up great personal wealth that was kept outside the petrostate. Alejandro Andrade, who served as Venezuela’s treasury minister from 2007 to 2010 and was reportedly a close associate of Chavez, was discovered to have $11.2billion in his name… During his lifetime, Hugo Chavez denounced wealthy individuals, once railing against the rich for being ‘lazy.’ ‘The rich don’t work, they’re lazy,’ he railed in a speech in 2010. ‘Every day they go drinking whiskey – almost every day – and drugs, cocaine, they travel.’
What a bunch of hypocrites. They denounce successful people who presumably earn money honestly, yet they amass huge fortunes by pilfering their nation. And what’s been happening in Venezuela is no different, I’m sure, than what happened in the past in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and other socialist regimes.
Let’s close by citing some wise words about the impact of socialism on ordinary people from Kevin Williamson of National Review.
The United Socialist party’s disastrous economic policies have led to acute shortages of everything: rice, beans, flour, oil, eggs, soap, even toilet paper. Venezuela is full of state-run stores that are there to provide the poor with life’s necessities at subsidized prices, but the shelves are empty. …While Venezuela has endured food riots for years, the capital recently has been the scene of protests related to medical care. Venezuela has free universal health care — and a constitutional guarantee of access to it. That means exactly nothing in a country without enough doctors, medicine, or facilities. Chemotherapy is available in only three cities, with patients often traveling hours from the hinterlands to receive treatment. But the treatment has stopped.
Now ask yourself whether you think the party bosses are suffering like other citizens because of a lack of food and health care (or toilet paper!).
And that giant gap between the treatment of the elite vs. the peasantry tells you everything you need to know about socialism, whether it’s the brutal kind practiced in places such as Venezuela or the kinder, gentler (but equally hypocritical) versions found elsewhere.
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What a piece of nothing of an article. Mr. Mitchell derides socialism without giving any examples of any Democratic Socialism failures. And that's because he can't; there aren't any. All the Scandinavian countries are doing very well and far exceed the US in education, infrastructure, crime, and happiness, all all with a very healthy middle class. Of course, the wealthy there are paying their fair share of taxes which Mr. Mitchell, evidently, doesn't support.
Well, within the context of it being an intentionally ignorant piece of propaganda, it's actually kinda good. That darned Maria Chavez! See, we should abolish minimum wage.
Looks like Mitchell got his monthly copy in to keep certain people happy. Another poorly written article that uses the same old blanket generalizations that try to keep the morons stupid, and the haters hating, and the oligarchs laughing at everyone else. Supply side trickle down has been an abject failure the last 40 years as the middle class has lost much of the gains that were made up until the 1970s.
Mitchell got his start as a gopher for abuser senator Bob Packwood....remember him? ..........of course Packwood became a K street lobbyist after stepping down in disgrace.
You are on it !
Yep.