Cheers for Vin Scully, the legendary voice of the Dodgers. He’s called a lot of games and big moments over the years. His comments about socialism earned an A+ in the Truth Hall of Fame:
“Socialism, failing to work as it always does. This time in Venezuela. You talk about giving everybody something free and all of a sudden, there’s no food to eat. And who do you think is the richest person in Venezuela? The daughter of Hugo Chavez. Hello.”
Down in Venezuela, the situation has reached “failed state” status. What do you call a state where soldiers have to protect bakeries so that people don’t steal flour or bread? It is horrific, as we see in this report from The New York Times:
With delivery trucks under constant attack, the nation’s food is now transported under armed guard. Soldiers stand watch over bakeries. The police fire rubber bullets at desperate mobs storming grocery stores, pharmacies and butcher shops. A 4-year-old girl was shot to death as street gangs fought over food.Venezuela is convulsing from hunger.
I visited Venezuela a couple of times before Chavez. A nation “convulsing from hunger” is not what I found.
On the contrary, it was a happy country, full of well-stocked stores and some of the finest restaurants in the world. To be fair, it was not a perfect country, from too much dependence on oil and too many imported goods. Again, there was no hunger or shortage of anything.
Cuba went through a period like this in the 1960s. Unlike Venezuela today, Castro had a USSR willing to pay the bills as long as he served as a spokesman for socialism in the Third World and sent troops to fight wars in Africa.
Here is the bottom line: Millions of US citizens voted for Senator Sanders, a man who would love to turn the US into that place where the government gives you this and that, paid for by the rich.
I am not going to say that every Sanders voter was voting for socialism, but a lot of them did by accepting the idea that government would provide you health care and tuition. How is that working out in Venezuela? Frankly, how is “free stuff” working out anywhere else?
Here is an idea: Every young person in college should listen to that quick audio from Vince Scully. Better than, they should go down to Caracas for a few months and see what Sanders had in mind.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
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