José Niño was born in Venezuela and his family has experienced the impacts of socialism first hand. But was it “real socialism?”
On this episode of It’s Your Dime, José and host Mike Maharrey talk about it.
José had the good fortune of leaving Venezuela before it descended into chaos. After reading the tea leaves and realizing that the country was heading down the path of political turmoil, José’s parents brought his family to the US in search of better opportunities.
Venezuela’s economy is in chaos. It’s gotten so bad that a year ago, video game money was worth seven times more than the Venezuelan bolivar. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan people have suffered horrible food shortages. Many people in Venezuela have turned to barter just to survive.
Not so long ago, left-leaning publications in the US were touting Venezuela as a socialist success story. Today, any attempt to point to Venezuela as socialist disaster will be met with the refrain, “That’s not real socialism!”
Apologists for socialism also blame the collapse of the Venezuelan economy on US sanctions. But as Jon Aldekoa explained in an article published on the Mises Wire and UFM Market Trends, actual data reveals it was indeed real socialism that wrecked Venezuela.
We’ve covered the plight of the Venezuelan economy as it has plunged into chaos over the last several years. It’s gotten so bad that a year ago, video game money was worth seven times more than the Venezuelan bolivar. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan people have suffered horrible food shortages. Many people in Venezuela have turned to barter just to survive.
But Venezuela isn’t the only country suffering the effects of socialism. Cubans are currently enduring food shortages of their own as the country’s economy hurtles toward crisis mode.
The Democrats led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released their “Green New Deal” last week. As Peter Schiff put it in his latest podcast, the Green New Deal is really red – as in socialist red.
The whole thing is an economic train wreck.
It’s masterful politics though.
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As we’ve noted before, Keynesian central planners suffer from fatal conceit. They think they are smart enough to plan and direct the economy better than the free market. When you boil it all down, these people believe they can do a better job of making your economic decisions than you can. After all, a free market is nothing more than the aggregate of all of our individual economic choices. Paul Krugman serves as the poster child for central planning arrogance, but another Nobel Prize-winning central planner is making a name for himself by tearing down the free market. Joseph Stiglitz claims capitalism is “rigged.” But as economist Bill Anderson shows in an article recently published on the Mises Wire, Stiglitz has got it completely wrong. Capitalism – in the true sense of the word – isn’t rigged. Socialism is.
Peter Schiff recently appeared on RT News with Rick Sanchez. Peter said both an economic and a political crisis is looming, and Americans need to get ready.
The US federal government posted the largest budget deficit since 2012 in fiscal 2018. Uncle Sam ended 2018 $779 billion in the red, adding to the ballooning national debt. The Bipartisan Policy Center called the Treasury report a “wakeup call,” noting that trillion dollar deficits during an economic expansion are a serious issue.
But not everybody is concerned. Peter Schiff appeared on RT this week to debate a socialist about the deficit.
Last week, we ran an article highlighting the fact that Venezuelans are better off holding video game money than bolivars.
Whenever we publish an article like that criticizing socialism, we always get some people insisting, “That’s not real socialism.” In fact, they emphatically claim that socialism has never really been tried.
But as Ryan McMaken points out in an article published on the Mises Wire, “real socialism” has been tried – more than once. And it’s failed every single time.
As the saying goes, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein is usually credited with that statement, although there isn’t any proof that he ever said it. Nevertheless, it’s certainly a good working definition of insanity. And by that definition, I have to conclude that socialists are insane.
