Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela is one place where Friedrich Hayek’s most dire warnings remain relevant.
Marian Tupy | April 4, 2017
Manaure Quintero/NurPhoto/Sipa U/NewscomOn March 29, the Supreme Court of Venezuela dissolved the country’s elected legislature, allowing Venezuela’s top court to write future laws. The court is filled with allies of Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, while the legislature is dominated by Maduro’s opponents, and the court’s ruling was seen as the latest step on Venezuela’s descent into a full-fledged dictatorship. But following international outcry—as well as the appearance of cracks within Maduro’s own party—the court reversed itself just a few days later, on April 1.
https://reason.com/archives/2017/04/04/from-socialism-to-dictatorship
“Socialism leads to dictatorship.” So does democracy, apparently. Perhaps all roads lead to dictatorship.
Point taken. 🙂
I think, however, the common denominator is always an angry, abused populace who is too ignorant and distracted to be able to see who is truly inflicting the damage.
The funny thing is the fact that we’re all socialists, it’s just that some of us don’t realize it. Can’t connect the dots – or, perhaps, don’t know the definition of ‘socialism.’
In favor of receiving your Social Security and Medicare? Surprise! You’re a socialist! Like having a Police Department? A Fire Department? The Department of Public Works? Guess what? You’re a socialist! Ever visit New York City? Do you get there though a tunnel, or cross a bridge, on paved roads? Oops! You’re a socialist!
The simple reality is that certain things are more efficiently, and effectively, accomplished when we act as a society. And society is the ‘social’ in socialism.
Of course, if you’re a red-blooded, pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps, real-American, kind of real-man, prove it. If your house catches fire, put it out by yourself. Bad guys at the door? Well, you’re a real man, you take care of them. No cops. And that next trip to NYC? Stay off of society’s roads. Or just admit that you, too, are a closet socialist.
nice try no cigar comrade
#BlackLivesMatter x100
As a society, we have to have elements of socialism within it. However, those elements can only exist because of the existence of capitalism. No country has ever succeeded where this ratio does not exist.