by Nick Sorrentino
Originally posted at Against Crony Capitalism, and posted here with the kind permission of the author. Read the original post here…
“To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary … These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution!” – Che Guevara
Venezuela is a real “red state.”
Why don’t these guys ever learn? Is the religion of socialism so sweet, so sublime, that it it induces all loss of rational thought? Socialism must be a “helluva drug,” as Rick James might have said.
It never, I mean never works. Yet people keep doing more and more of it once they’ve become addicted.
Socialism has survived in places for periods of time, The Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea, but it never “works.” Yet even in the 21st Century there are those who believe they can create a proletarian heaven on earth. Just one more price control. If only we could “liquidate” (a wonderful Marxist term for mass assassination and genocide) the peasants with their backward thinking and the bourgeois business owners with their petty property rights. Then socialism will work. This time. It’s invariably that there isn’t enough socialism, not that the entire ethos is devoid of any economic sense, that is the source of a country’s problems.
Just do some more socialism baby. Everything will be cool.
But the junkie always dies.
Socialism is a delusion which ends in destruction. Hide prices and you hide the truth. Maduro is going to learn very quickly that the truth is bigger than he is. He may have already.
It should also be noted that socialistic societies are always crony capitalistic societies to a greater or lesser extent. The Sandinistas, the Soviets, Cuba, China, all had/have pet relationships with various groups and even sometimes with private companies, which enrich(ed) the Nomenklatura on the way to implosion.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro exercised new emergency powers for the first time Thursday, signing decrees limiting business profit margins and tightening regulation of imports.
He acted as part of a so-called “economic war” against a crisis for which he blames the opposition “bourgeoisie” and imperialism.
November 22, 2013
And this is what obama wants for the USA & is getting away with it,how sad.you have young people in the US wearing che guevara t shirts & they don’t even know what a viscous killer he was.Is this the road christie is taking us down to with things like a national health plan etc.
What a political embarrassment Venezuela has become to its citizens.. Twenty years ago, Venezuelans would have said, it could never happen to us.. But wait a minute, didn’t loyal Americans six years ago say the same think about America?? Now the same things are being said by Bahamians about the present government regime.. All three countries are bring run for the benefit of an intolerant ruling class and special political interests.. Shocking you say, but the long reach of Cuba’s evil totalitarianism and ruling class privileges has begun to take root on our shores.. Perhaps that may help to explain why many expats are leaving our shores and taking their valuable expertise with them..
The “Winds of Change” are blowing in the air and this is not good sign for our homeland.. Guess the old saying is true, “the last one off the sinking ship never gets a place on the lifeboat”.. These are rather precarious times and one had better pay close attention to the direction the wind is blowing..
Mr Sorrentino, like most commentators has got it wrong!
Venezuela’s failure is not a damnation of Socialism, per se, but of man’s unswerving tendency to be dogmatic in what he believes.
It is no more more right to criticise Socialism than it is to praise Capitalism when all of history shows that NO single economic system is perfect, which means the way forward for most thinking leaders is a system that strikes a subjective balance between all forms of economic systems that finds the right mix for a given country at a given point in history.
No system is perfect S3S you’re right in that. However, Socialism has damned more people into poverty than Capitalism. And Capitalism has raised more people out of poverty than any other system yet devised.
So give me Capitalism any day.
Also what is the US, UK, and The Bahamas for that matter, if not mixed economies?
Seems to me when governments begin to think they just need to “turn a few dials” to make everything alright is when it all comes asunder. Think crony capitalism and socialism.
Are you kidding S3S,really ? Not sure what world you live in but I agree with Tradewinds & Rick on this.Why do you think obama is pushing what he is ? Its because he grew up surrounded by socialist communist people,simple as that.There are many examples of how bad socialism is & right next door is a fine example with Cuba so don’t give me that crap because it does not compare with capitalism & you & I would not even be able to make these comments in Cuba or any other socialist country for that matter.
Rick, you got it in one, mate! No, Overtaxed, I’m not kidding – the issue is far too profound for serious economists the world over.
Yes, the US, UK, Canada, Japan and The Bahamas (to name a few) are all “mixed economies”, as indeed most economies in the world, so the obvious question begs as to what is missing?
Dare I suggest that the answer is inhered in my comments above? Of course they are mixed economies, but to a country, they each have the ‘balance’ wrong my friend ….
Correct S3S. The balance has too much Socialism and not enough Capitalism.
Right on Rick.
Truer words could never be more spoken.. Our problem is to separate idealistic political theory from the stark naked reality of political realism.. Since the beginning of time and starting with Plato, mankind has pondered what is a perfect political system and form of governance?? Can a political Utopia really exist??
In Plato’s Republic, he attempted to uncover the perfect society.. Thomas More’s classic Utopia was based on radical egalitarianism.. In contrast, Thomas Hobbs in his Leviathan believed that Utopia was vested in the all-powerful political state.. While Karl Marx in his Communist Manifesto defined his Utopia in terms of economic class struggle.. John Lock found his Utopia in the nature of man and natural law..
What becomes apparent to intellectual thinking of this day and age is that the history of political thought is nothing more than an eternal quest seeking the perfect political Utopia.. We know in our minds and from experience that Utopia does not really exist, but as perfectionists we dream of what will never come to be.. We have all become in our own individual ways a part of that great historical quest, always hoping to find what Ronald Reagan called that Eternal City on the hill, his own Ameritopia, which always seems to be just beyond the horizon..
Didn’t someone once say that “Hope Springs Eternal”.. Our blogs and commentary are a source of continued hope and an expression man’s eternal dream of idealism and perhaps our own Bahamatopia….
Tradewinds to me its just a matter of right & wrong.We have to stop this grey area nonsense.If we practice right & wrong everything else will fall into place.The world today would not exist if there was no capitalism period.One of the problems we have is that the politicians think because you have this or that then they have the right to take it from you & that is totally wrong in fact what the government is doing to us right now people are serving time in jail for.
Bahamatopia lets us all dream forever of such idealistic expectations.. As the new year is fast approaching, let us thank one another in our expanding circle of blogging friends for the intellectual stimulus we share together in common purpose..
For Rick, a man of vision beyond his dreams, we thank you for your unwavering dedication and courage beyond all expectations and for nourishing our beliefs in free and open economic thinking.. For S3S, our Bahamian friend and mate living afar, who outstanding contributions and insight stimulates commentary that always evokes a response covering the entire spectrum of political economics, as we always look forward to your perspective and challenge.. To Overtaxed, Oracle, Dennis and all the other proud lovers of our Bahamas, both far and near, your commentary, criticism and positive input stimulates our thinking to greater heights and makes us speak out for righteous, truth and national dignity..
For in the end, our love of country motivates us to try and make a difference not only for ourselves but for all Bahamians and residents of the country that is most dear to our hearts and the place we call home.. 2014 will be a year of challenges which we must confront together and champion the right course of action.. For in the end the values of truth and righteousness will overcome fear and adversity as we maintain our true course forward.. May the blessing of the Almighty be with us in our noble quest.. Who knows what the future holds, we may even discover a Bahamatopia somewhere at the end of the rainbow..
Many thanks for your kind words, Tradewinds.
I enjoy the meeting of minds and even though we are separated by geography, believe me, we are more ‘proximate’ than you think.
My aim in the coming months (in spite of the threat of an increasing workload and the start of a new business venture) is to visit on a more regular basis, continue to be objective and if I my contributions are evocative at the same time, then great!
All the best to all commentators and visitors to this site for 2014 and let’s hope we can make ‘Bahamatopia’ a reality (even if it starts on paper only).
Of course, we could just wait for all the resources private and public to be frittered and wasted away,
Leaving nothing to appropriate, tax, take or eat.
Harsh way to prove a point but I believe we shall indeed find ourselves pontificating with empty bellies relatively soon!
Would not be the first time in human history either.
Far from it in fact.
Happy New Year all,
All the best for 2014