Venezuela’s embattled government has taken the drastic step of forcing food producers to sell their produce to the state, in a bid to counter the ever-worsening shortages.
Embattled? I think they’re using that word wrong.
Venezuela’s embattled government has taken the drastic step of forcing food producers to sell their produce to the state, in a bid to counter the ever-worsening shortages.
Embattled? I think they’re using that word wrong.
Farmers just love having their produce confiscated, don’t they-?
I guess they’ve never translated the history of the USSR into Spanish?
I’d venture a guess that if you polled the customers at the Halifax Seaport Farmer’s Market on any given Saturday, a majority would be supporters of Señor Maduro; even worse, some of the farmers would be as well.
Socialists never learn. When you take away the incentive of profiting from ones own sweat and labour, people stop being productive and start gaming the system. Then more draconian counter measures are enacted by the state to combat this, and eventually you end up with the Soviet system.
You’ve got to love socialists. The solution to virtually any problem is invariably more of what caused the problem in the first place.
The vast majority of academia believes (for the last 2-3 generations) that this is the correct path and with the right political tweeking would yield a better outcome. We are all Greeks now.
Now we are actually seeing how the communists/fascists operate. There is virtually NO daylight between the two ideologies. As indicated in the piece below.
Hitler was named “Man of the Year” in 1938 by Time Magazine. They noted Hitler’s anti-capitalistic economic policies:
“Most cruel joke of all, however, has been played by Hitler & Co. on those German capitalists and small businessmen who once backed National Socialism as a means of saving Germany’s bourgeois economic structure from radicalism. The Nazi credo that the individual belongs to the state also applies to business. Some businesses have been confiscated outright, on other what amounts to a capital tax has been levied. Profits have been strictly controlled. Some idea of the increasing Governmental control and interference in business could be deduced from the fact that 80% of all building and 50% of all industrial orders in Germany originated last year with the Government. Hard-pressed for food- stuffs as well as funds, the Nazi regime has taken over large estates and in many instances collectivized agriculture, a procedure fundamentally similar to Russian Communism.”
(Source: Time Magazine; January 2, 1939.)
Where is Sean Penn when you really “need” him?
I am sure Mark Weisbrot is preparing an article as we speak explaining how…
1. Thing are not nearly as bad as they seem, and
2. The Venezuelan government has a plan to fix this non-crisis.
Actually, old Mark has been disturbingly quite about Venezuela lately. Perhaps even he has some shame.
Naaahh, he’s probably just found other countries to help destroy, his work in Venezuela now done.
If only Venezuelans were ruled by a feminist collective!
If only Venezuelans were ruled by a feminist collective!
It would surely be an improvement. I would rather have a government that can’t agree on the proper way to use a can opener than one which is competent enough to implement their brutal and impoverishing policies.
John Lewis:
“Farmers just love having their produce confiscated, don’t they-?”
S’course. Lenin & the red-greens hanged/shot the kulaks for less.
…-
“LENIN’S HANGING ORDER
The following telegram was writtten by Vladimir Lenin in November of 1918. It was released from the Archives of the Central Committee by the Chief Russian Archivist Rudolph Pikoia, after the attempted coup of 1991 during the first Yeltsin Presidency.”
“Comrades! The revolt of the five kulak volost’s must be repressed without mercy. The interest of the entire revolution demands this, because we have now before us our final decisive battle “with the kulaks.” We need to set an example.
1. You need to hang (hang without fail, so that the public sees) at least 100 notorious kulaks, the rich, and the bloodsuckers.
2. Publish their names.
3. Take away all of their grain.”
http://home.comcast.net/~mfbaehr/lenin.html
I don’t get it. The solution is so freaking simple. Just pass a law mandating more product on the shelves. Problem solved.
Commies want the state to own everything. Fascists don’t care who owns it, as long as they obey orders. The single difference.
We intend to come up with an incisive reply to that but it will be some time as our collective next meets on 1 August.
Be patient!
What happens when the farmers all apply for government jobs? Why would anyone farm just to give it away? In Russia the communists took the seed and breeding stock so everyone could starve the next year.
Senior Maduro – is that boiling tar I smell??
I pity the productive minority in Venezuela they do not deserve this. As for the majority that consistently democratically voted for this, I’ll be happy when they starve.
Government jobs are only for party members of good standing.
You would think that in over 100 years one of these assholes would have read
Harvest Of Sorrow by Robert Conquest by now. What is the definition of
stupidity: Doing the same thing over again and expecting different
results.
Farmer: Why should I sell to you at less than cost?
People’s Ministry of Plenty: Because if you don’t we’ll shoot you 🙂
Farmer: OK.
(but they shot her anyway)
Canada can help. Not just with blankets. There are a number of CWB personnel that Harper could be sending to assist Maduro in his noble efforts. If it’s ok with Saskatchewan, Ralph Goodale could provide assistance until the problem becomes permanent.
“Farmer: Why should I sell to you at less than cost?
People’s Ministry of Plenty: Because if you don’t we’ll shoot you 🙂
Farmer: OK.
(but they shot her anyway)”
Notice when they say “if you don’t we’ll shoot you” they don’t say “if you do as we say we won’t shoot you.”
https://dolartoday.com
There’s money available at the real exchange rate, to buy real products. There’s almost nothing available at the gov’t decreed exchange rate, to buy anything.
“Notice when they say “if you don’t we’ll shoot you” they don’t say “if you do as we say we won’t shoot you.”
Right, but later they confiscated the farm, all equipment, grain, and livestock. Then they sentenced you to to re-education terms in labour camps from which few returned.
Well, this is easy for me, as all of the above have covered it all. As most of you know, me and a few others have had family legally murdered by governments with similar policies of War Communism. Forcing producers to sell to the government is only the first step in the process.
Roseberry, that is sad, as later they will wonder why they have to scrounge for food.
DrD, yes, you have to wonder how it is possible that they can be so stupid.
Russia was also burdened by overt racism that more than assimilate minorities, sought to punish them for not being Russian. Russia didn’t want its 2 million Germans but wouldn’t let them leave. What they did was allow the men to grow up and then selectively execute them by order of unaccountable tribunals until most were killed by 40 or 50. After the Soviet Union fell 75 years later, there were still only about 2 million left. Most couldn’t speak German but they got the hell out.
Note too that the “progressives” have simply stopped mentioning Venezuela’s great Bolivarian social experiment completely.
It has conveniently dropped off their radar.
Nothing to see here, move along.