Hillary and Bernie are working on the wrong problems

Do you know that the average monthly income in China is $952 in U.S. dollars? Not too good. But wait, in Cuba it's only $25, which is a pretty big problem when a gallon of gas is almost $5. These are socialist/communist countries. They promise people all kinds of free stuff, and they impose massive taxes to pay for it. It seems like it should be fairly basic to understand that this is not the sort of system that can lead to any kind of prosperity, but judging from the number of people willing to vote for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, it is not obvious to enough people.

---

I get calls from people who have lived in countries that are or were socialist. They're trying to warn us. Why don't Americans understand what will happen if we go even further down the socialist road Obama has started us on? A lot of people think it's interesting that the elderly Sanders has so many young supporters, but it makes perfect sense to me. He's supported by people who don't remember life before the Berlin Wall came down and the Iron Curtain was no more. They don't understand what socialism really is. They hear Bernie and Hillary talk about giving them free college, and forgiving their student loans, and it sounds great to them. And they're economically illiterate enough to believe this can really done just by taxing the "1 percent." They're in for a pretty big surprise when they discover that it doesn't work that way at all. All you have to do is look at Venezuela, where the entire economy (and probably the government soon to follow) are about to collapse. Venezuela has been socialist ever since the revolution led by the late Hugo Chavez, and his successor Nicolas Maduro has maintained the Chavista socialist policies. They've been a disaster. High taxes and business disincentives have made it virtually impossible for businesses to make a profit making or selling products. So guess what: They don't. You can hardly find a roll of toilet paper in Venezuela, and the people aren't going to take that sitting down!

---

---

But this is what happens under socialist policies. Venezuela has more oil reserves than any nation in the world but that resource has been mismanaged by political hacks, and the government has focused on consolidating its power over the economy rather than facilitating its growth. The more they tax and regulate production, under the guise of protecting the little guy, the more the cost of production rises and the potential to make a profit off it decreases. That's how you get shortages of goods and sky-high prices. And for all of Bernie's talk about how no one who works 40 hours a week should be in poverty, I wonder if his supporters understand that under socialism - everyone is in poverty. Except the politically connected, of course, because the only way to lay hands on any sort of wealth is to get it through political graft and corruption. By the way, don't think for a second that there is any real policy difference between Hillary and Bernie. He's an avowed socialist. She's a socialist for all intents and purposes (as is Obama), but she won't use the label because she doesn't think it's in her political interests. The allure of socialism always relies on the people's belief that "the rich" are somehow keeping them from getting what's theirs, and that politicians can use public policy to make that right. It never works that way. Ever. Productive people create wealth, and that's what makes it possible to create opportunity for those who want more than they have. Socialists punish achievement and remove all incentive to create wealth. What do you get what that happens? Shortages of milk and gas. Shortages of toilet paper. Depressed incomes. Misery all around. Free stuff? Sure, you get can get that. Theoretically. If you can find any stuff. Which you can't. Because everyone stopped making it when they couldn't make any money making it. Enjoy your socialism! A generation from now, you'll be the ones trying to warn everyone else.

---