Was my three-part series (here, here, and here) on Venezuelan socialism unfair?
I focused on boring and technical data regarding living standards.
At first glance, those numbers make Venezuela look bad. But maybe per-capita GDP dropped because rich people are no longer rich.
And since one of America’s presidential candidates has embraced equality-of-outcomes as a goal, some people might argue that what has happened in Venezuela is a good result.
I don’t find that argument compelling (especially since there’s so much evidence about dramatic increases in poverty in Venezuela), so I’m going to give my leftist friends a different suggestion.
They should celebrate and publicize the fact that socialism can make Christmas show up early!
You might think that’s absurd, but CNN has the details.
Christmas will start next month in Venezuela, authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro has decreed… “September smells like Christmas!” Maduro said in his weekly television show on Monday, to the apparent delight of his audience. …This is not the first time Maduro has extended the official national period of Christmas celebration, which in Venezuela often comes with extra bonuses for public employees and more lavish gifts in government handouts. Last year, Maduro ordered Christmas to start on November 1, later expressing regret that he didn’t start it earlier. In 2021, …Maduro decreed that Christmas would start on October 4
How thoughtful of Maduro to accelerate Christmas.
And it may be time to crank up the printing press since he likes to play Santa Claus with “extra bonuses for public employees and more…government handouts.”
Which is probably an improvement compared to the other time he played Santa Claus. But I guess we’ll have to wait for Joseph Stiglitz to bless the plan.
P.S. A 2015 column about “great moments in socialism” also was about Venezuela.
Dan Mitchell is co-founder of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and Chairman of the Board. He is an expert in international tax competition and supply-side tax policy.
