It’s amazing — and troubling — that some countries believe they can achieve prosperity through Marxist policies that have been shown time and again to create poverty.
Down in South America, the nation of Venezuela has vast oil reserves. But instead of letting the free market guide the production of that oil, Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez exerts heavy government control, using oil proceeds to prop up his oppressive rule rather than permitting real, free-enterprise economic growth.
In consequence, Venezuela — which should be rich — has 30 percent inflation, the highest rate in all Latin America. Its economy has all but collapsed. There is a lack of some basic foods. And with all its oil supplies, it has major power shortages.
Yet Chavez is not backing down. He has been taking over one industry after another, and recently his government began seizing 18 distributors of food and retail goods. Many businesses seized in Venezuela have been accused of “hoarding” their goods, which is the pretext the government uses to take them over.
But it never seems to occur to Chavez to wonder why a company might not put its products on the market. The fact is, he has imposed price controls on many goods. In some cases, the controls are so strict that a company cannot recoup its production costs. So what reason would it have to put its wares up for sale? That would be a losing proposition.
For that matter, Marxism itself is a losing proposition.