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Is Socialism to Blame for Venezuela's Plight? Yes, but Not Entirely (José Ignacio Soler, Venezuela, 12/09/18 4:38 am)

Tor Guimaraes wrote on December 7th that it is ideological nonsense to blame Venezuela's current drama entirely on socialism.

I agree partially with him.

In the Venezuelan case, it is true that there are other factors such as corruption, drugs and weapons trafficking, and a sophisticated form of political dictatorship, but it is also true that the basic ideology that inspired all this current state of affairs is 21st-century socialism, a new form if you will of the most radical expression of socialism supported by the Castro regime. Everything that socially and politically is happening here has been carried out in the name of the Social Revolution.

For sure there have been other regimes inspired by other ideologies around the world in the past with similar results, ruining the country to levels never before experienced, but this has likely never happened in peacetime.

JE comments:  Has another nation in history gone from such wealth to such poverty?  Probably not, although there might be a few rivals to Venezuela, such as Zimbabwe and tiny Nauru, which ran out of guano.  It's time to write a sequel to Adam Smith:  The Poverty of Nations.

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