Would Bernie Sanders and his supporters rather live in Venezuela? Venezuela, after all, is a socialist country. It’s a government-run economy. The society is based on the idea of all for one, and one for all, mandated by the coercion of the government. That’s the creed of socialism.
This is what Bernie Sanders and his ardent young supporters want, right? Then why would none of them ever live in Venezuela?
From The Washington Post:
The only question now is whether Venezuela’s government or economy will completely collapse first.
The key word there is “completely.” Both are well into their death throes. Indeed, Venezuela’s ruling party just lost congressional elections that gave the opposition a veto-proof majority, and it’s hard to see that getting any better for them any time soon — or ever. Incumbents, after all, don’t tend to do too well when, according to the International Monetary Fund, their economy shrinks 10 percent one year, an additional 6 percent the next, and inflation explodes to 720 percent. It’s no wonder, then, that markets expect Venezuela to default on its debt in the very near future. The country is basically bankrupt.
That’s not an easy thing to do when you have the largest oil reserves in the world, but Venezuela has managed it. How? Well, a combination of bad luck and worse policies. The first step was when Hugo Chávez’s socialist government started spending more money on the poor, with everything from two-cent gasoline to free housing. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that — in fact, it’s a good idea in general — but only as long as you actually, well, have the money to spend. And by 2005 or so, Venezuela didn’t.
Why not? The answer is that Chávez turned the state-owned oil company from being professionally run to being barely run. People who knew what they were doing were replaced with people who were loyal to the regime, and profits came out but new investment didn’t go in.
Actually, it’s never a good idea for the government to spend money on the poor. When the government does so, it makes the poor dependent on the government and it impedes the growth of the private economy, at the same time. If your goal is to help the poor, you would not make them helpless wards of the state and prevent them from gaining economic opportunities in the private sector.
For decades, America has attempted to compromise between the monopolistic force of government socialism and the individuality, autonomy and progress fostered by capitalism. The results have been unpopular with everybody. That’s why there’s so much anger.
Donald Trump’s solution? Give him – Donald Trump — more control over the economy. How? Somehow. Just trust him. He will fix it. It will be greater than you could ever have imagined. How? By using free market principles? Socialistic principles? Something else? He does not say. You just have to trust him. All those bozos in Washington DC are idiots, he says. I entirely agree. But why are they idiots? Because they’re not him.
Bernie Sanders’ solution? Give government more control over the economy? No; that’s for sissies. That’s what Barack Obama did, and that’s what Hillary Clinton wants to do. More government control; not total control. Bernie Sanders wants to go all the way. He’s a socialist who became a Democrat simply to be eligible for the Democratic nomination for president. (At the moment, he’s winning, which reveals just how socialist the Democratic party was all along.) Bernie Sanders, along with those who applaud him, want government to control everything. Or at least they think they do.
But that’s what they already have in Venezuela. Witness the results. It’s too much for even The Washington Post to excuse away. Yet the facts speak for themselves.
People who favor free markets and capitalism are constantly on the defensive. They are called everything from racist to anti-woman to anti-gay to nationalist. Yet capitalism offers no special protection for any one person or group. Capitalism protects only one thing: Capability.
Unless you’re a racist or a sexist, you will presumably agree that capability and achievement come in all shapes, sizes, genders, and even sexual orientations. In a free-market economy, even a transgendered person can achieve and attain great wealth and deliver enormous satisfaction to millions of customers. Nobody is excluded from the potential that capitalism has to offer. Capitalism picks no favorites and imposes no rules, other than the rules of private property and individual rights. Yet America, of all places, continues its steady march towards socialism. What is wrong with people?
Young people like intellectual honesty and plain-spokenness. Bernie Sanders, in their eyes, offers both. Yet whenever his ideas have been tried, those policies result in the misery of Venezuela, only the latest victim of socialism. Add Cuba, North Korea, Soviet Russia, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and much of the rest of the world to the list.
Capitalism fosters freedom, independence and individualism. Socialism fosters coercion, uniformity and conformity. Young people generally want individualism and independence, and well they should. So why the rush to socialism? Capitalism permits the diversity most socialists claim to value, via free markets, innovation and constantly trying to find new ways to please consumers. Socialism thwarts innovation and growth while appealing to fear and stagnation as the only alternative to the risk-taking of growth. Psychologically and ideologically, socialism is old, restrained, frightened and narrow-minded; capitalism is all about becoming, growing, changing, innovating and improving, and being one’s own person. There’s always a new Apple or Netflix or Uber yet to emerge; under socialism, nothing new ever does.
Capitalism ought to appeal to the young far and away more than the old.
America got its start with economic freedom, and owes everything still valuable about it to both economic and individual freedom. Look how it’s still the place where everyone wants to live. Despite its departure from capitalism, America is still the one. Why? Because it’s still more capitalist than anywhere, more because of capitalism’s remnants than anything. Not for long. Not on our present course. We have been neglecting and undercutting capitalism for decades. Bernie Sanders seeks to snuff out economic liberty and prosperity with a pillow, once and for all. For this, they call him an idealist.
Capitalism makes all our lives infinitely better. When will socialism be on the defensive?
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