Venezuela Shows The Human Cost Of Statism

Maybe it’s just because I’m a wonk, but it seems that comparing long-run growth rates in various nations sets up a slam-dunk argument for the superiority of free markets and small government.

That’s very compelling evidence, in my humble opinion, but I wonder whether it’s not overly persuasive because it’s too dry and analytical.

Venezuela certainly would be a perfect (in a bad way) example.

That certainly sounds grim, but that story doesn’t fully capture how bad life has become for ordinary people.

What a miserable tragedy.

What a horrifying life.

Unsurprisingly, deprivation and economic chaos are now the norm.

Considering that Venezuela is in last place for Economic Freedom of the World, none of this should be surprising.

In other words, Venezuela apparently is creating a sure-to-fail mixture of autarky and collective agriculture.

Let’s wrap up with a CNN story about a new “jobs” programme from the thugs in Caracas.

I’m not even sure where to start. The fact that people are dying because of horrible and sub-standard care? The fact that the government is engaging in a form of quasi-slavery by forcing people to work on farms? Or the fact that bad government policy is the reason for the disaster?

So, with apologies to fans of Dante’s Inferno, I put together the Five Circles of Statist Hell. The first layer is relatively benign, featuring nations such as France that sap an economy’s vitality with lots of feel-good programmes. Then you get countries that belong in the second layer, which is characterised by economies that are actually declining rather than merely stagnating.

And the next layer is where Venezuela is today, with systemic misery and poverty. In other words, the nations in this layer already have declined and have lots of suffering.

And the only thing worse than that is the final layer of statist hell, which features countries that actually butcher their own citizens.

Well, Joe Kennedy also deserves our scorn and disdain. The former politician actually mourned the death of the evil slug who is most responsible for the mess in Venezuela.

How disgusting and unseemly. Makes the Che sycophants seems like moral giants.