Central planning has a miserable track record of failure because consumer preferences are ignored.
Price controls distort incentives to make wise decisions about consumption and production.
I think these are very compelling points, but many people are more persuaded by real world evidence.
Which is why frequently write about socialist basket cases (and I’m limiting this list to genuinely socialist nations and excluding countries with big welfare states).
But I’ve probably written more about Venezuela than those four nations combined.
Why? Because it a clear case of a nation that had a decent economy until the left took over about 25 years ago and dramatically increased the size and scope of government.
It’s gotten so bad that some folks on the left are now disavowing their former favorite country.
But of all the columns I’ve written about Venezuela, the one that stands out in my mind was the one I wrote in 2020 about how the New York Times wrote a long report about that country’s economic collapse and never once mentioned socialism.
As I pointed out at the time, that’s “like writing about 2020 and not mentioning coronavirus or writing about 1944 and not mentioning World War II.”
Well, it’s happened again. An article today, written by Frances Robles, has nearly 1700 words on how the national economy is a mess and how one town has been devastated, yet nary a word about the policies that caused the downfall.
It was once a thriving metropolis in the heart of oil country in Venezuela. That city, Maracaibo, no longer exists. Today, the city is rife with abandoned houses, some of which look like bombs were dropped on them, because homeowners tore windows and roofs off to sell for scrap before they took off on journeys to Colombia, Chile and the United States. …Nearly eight million people — more than a quarter of the population — have fled Venezuela in recent years, driven out by economic misery… Maracaibo, which is in western Venezuela and remains the country’s second-largest city, has been battered by a collapsed economy, routine blackouts and persistent gasoline and water shortages. …Taxi drivers who frequently make the three-hour trip to the Colombian border reported long lines of Venezuelans leaving on foot.
Some of you may be thinking the reporter made an inadvertent mistake, but that seems very unlikely.
After all, Robles had a story in the New York Times in July that laughably claimed that Venezuela is suffering from “brutal capitalism.”
I’m not joking.
So if someone ever asks you for evidence of media bias, I can’t imagine a stronger example.
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.
