WhatFinger


Approaching the inevitable nadir

Socialist paradise of Venezuela continues its collapse - descends into violent food riots



Thanks to its massive oil surplus, Venezuela should have been one of the wealthiest nations on Earth. Instead, it's become the planet's object lesson in the failure, and inherent unworkability, or socialism. As you know, a country that could be an economic powerhouse spent the last decade descending into shortages, breadlines, and chaos. We've seen manufacturing collapse, witnessed the end of their ability to produce and market even basic goods, and now we're watching as Venezuela descends into a violent, dystopian, wasteland. The food riots have begun. As the WaPo reports, starving marauders are ransacking grocery stores, hijacking deliveries, and even firing upon truck drivers:
In the darkness the warehouse looks like any other, a metal-roofed hangar next to a clattering overpass, with homeless people sleeping nearby in the shadows. But inside, workers quietly unload black plastic crates filled with merchandise so valuable that mobs have looted delivery vehicles, shot up the windshields of trucks and hurled a rock into one driver’s eye. Soldiers and police milling around the loading depots give this neighborhood the feel of a military garrison. “It’s just cheese,” said Juan Urrea, a 29-year-old driver, as workers unloaded thousands of pounds of white Venezuelan queso from his delivery truck. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Apparently, it's "just cheese" until your children are starving to death. When the stakes get that high, the breadlines (which Bernie Sanders likes to promote as a symbol of equality) simply won't cut it anymore. As anyone would, those faced with the choice between violence and feeding their kids are choosing violence.

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The fight for food has begun in Venezuela. On any day, in cities across this increasingly desperate nation, crowds form to sack supermarkets. Protesters take to the streets to decry the skyrocketing prices and dwindling supplies of basic goods. The wealthy improvise, some shopping online for food that arrives from Miami. Middle-class families make do with less: coffee without milk, sardines instead of beef, two daily meals instead of three. The poor are stripping mangoes off the trees and struggling to survive. “This is savagery,” said Pedro Zaraza, a car oil salesman, who watched a mob mass on Friday outside a supermarket, where it was eventually dispersed by the army. “The authorities are losing their grip.”
What, pray tell, could have caused such an "Escape From New York-ish" disaster? Well, you can thank Hugo Chavez's glorious socialist revolution. Venezuela has been in a steady decline ever since Castro's pal took over and, now, things are nearing their inevitable nadir.
The political stakes are mounting. Exhausted by government-imposed power blackouts, spiraling crime, endless food lines, shortages of medicine and waves of looting and protest, citizens are mobilizing against their leaders. In recent days, Venezuelans lined up to add their names to a recall petition that aims to bring down the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, and put an end to the socialist-inspired “revolution” ignited 17 years ago by Hugo Chavez. “This can’t continue,” said Angel Rondon, a mechanic, who now sometimes eats just once a day. “Things have to change.”

So, if you're a Bernie fan - or a Hillary fan since they hold near-identical policy positions - let Venezuela serve as a warning. They're nearing the violent, chaotic, end of the slippery slope on which your idols would place The United States. We know you don't care right now, but we bet you limousine liberals won't like it when you have to hijack a truck to get your martinis, caviar, and lobster tails.


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Robert Laurie’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain.com

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