I caught this over at Newbusters yesterday. Apparently, a country that is floating on oil can’t get food to the people. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so tragic.
How is this great leap forward into state control working out? A June 18 Reuters dispatch carried at CNBC reports that the government can’t even keep its food fresh. But that’s okay. The wire service takes a while to get there, and even then a bit of interpretation is necessary, but eventually we learn that the Chavez “solution” to that thorny problem is to seize replacement goods from private merchants:
Hugo Chavez Spearheads Raids as Food Prices Skyrocket
Mountains of rotting food found at a government warehouse, soaring prices and soldiers raiding wholesalers accused of hoarding: Food supply is the latest battle in President Hugo Chavez’s socialist revolution.
Venezuelan army soldiers swept through the working class, pro-Chavez neighborhood of Catia in Caracas last week, seizing 120 tons of rice along with coffee and powdered milk that officials said was to be sold above regulated prices.
“The battle for food is a matter of national security,” said a red-shirted official from the Food Ministry, resting his arm on a pallet laden with bags of coffee.
It is also the latest issue to divide the Latin American country where Chavez has nationalized a wide swathe of the economy, he says to reverse years of exploitation of the poor.
Chavez supporters are grateful for a network of cheap state-run supermarkets and they say the raids will slow massive inflation.
Critics accuse him of steering the country toward a communist dictatorship and say he is destroying the private sector.
They point to 80,000 tons of rotting food found in warehouses belonging to the government as evidence the state is a poor and corrupt administrator.
Jose Guzman, an assistant manager at a store raided in Catia, watched with resignation as government agents pored over the company’s accounts and computers after the food ministry official and the television cameras left.
“The government is pushing this type of establishment toward bankruptcy,” said Guzman, who linked the raid to the rotten food scandal. “Somehow they have to replace all the food that was lost, and this is the most expeditious way.”
So, Hugo tries to take over food distribution, and it fails. Imagine that! A government controlled entity that fails at its stated purpose, and resorts to theft to make up the difference. I wonder who he’ll rob when all the private businesses have gone under? Or is that when the people will starve?
There you have it, socialism fails. It always has, it always will. Others will be blamed, some will be jailed, and people will go hungry, but as long as the dictator stays in change, it’s acceptable. It’s a price that Chavez appears willing to pay.
Image H/T: Free Republic (Note that photo is not from Venezuela)
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The anti-capitalist thing seems to be something Obama likes, since he doesn’t call Glenn’s red phone maybe he has one that calls Hugo directly instead.
There does seem to be commonalities…
Comrade Hugo has it handled… and all will be well when the new soylent green factory attached to his political prison is finished, lol
I wonder how many show trails will be coming up in order to fill it.
ANd this is Barack Obama’s vision of the future of America?!
Quite possibly.
Sure it’s a food shortage. But it’s a progressive food shortage. Therein lies the difference.
True, there is apparent dignity in dying for the “dear leader.” Or, at least that’s what they tell the peasants.
It’s such a sad and predictable pattern. I wish people would wake up before we have to go through it too.
You and me both Kristen
I’m pretty sure the people will starve next. but only the ones who oppose him.
I don’t know that they have it together enough down there to even choose who starves.
Why does Joseph Stalin come to mind here?
Something about Comrade Josef starving all the folks in Ukraine?
I think Obama would love to follow in Chavez’s footsteps and be dictator for life. Obama only cares about power. There is no compassion with socialism.
“There is no compassion with socialism.”
That is a great truth, Teresa. Thanks!
Actually, I would say that, above power, Obama cares only about himself. It took him 60 days to bring the sh**hammer down on BP after the oil spill for screwing up an entire region of the U.S.; meanwhile it took him only 7 hours to summon, and then subsequently fire, a general for bad-mouthing BO.
That ought to tell you more about Obama than anything we’ve yet seen … and I have no doubt Chavez would have done the same.
I had not considered that Snarky. The old “narcissist in chief” thing is alive and well.
Yeah, the cool politically-connected crowd will get their food.
But hey, when they round up the plebes at least the regime will stuff the ‘bad’ Venezuelans into tropical paradise-style forced labor camps.
Yeah, they’ll call the camps, “Club Dead.”
hiya Matt:) There you have it, socialism fails. It always has, it always will. ..shhh don’t tell the leftards…they’ll be sooooooooooooo bummed man~!
Fear not,Angel. The Kool-Aid will keep them from figuring it out.
“There you have it, socialism fails. It always has, it always will.”
Yep, it’s the same everywhere that’s stupid enough to indulge in it. My only wish is that the idiots who vote for socialism would learn. Then again if you’re stupid enough to vote for socialism, you’re probably too stupid to learn from your mistakes too.
True. If you can’t recognize reality, you can’t see the fail.
have a great weekend Matt!:)
You too Angel!
Matt I just linked this in one of my articles today comparing Obama and Chavez. Isn’t this a terrible, terrible story for the people of Venezuela? So many tried to fight it but they couldn’t win over the Chavez government pawns.
Yes, and now they are all suffering together. Such is the case with socialism.