Hugo Chavez’s experiment with socialism in Venezuela has piqued the interest of numerous lefties here in America recently.  It has been hailed as a “major source of interest for social visionaries in the United States.”  The only problem is that no matter how you bundle up socialism you always get the same results.

Venezuela’s top food company has accused troops of illegally seizing more than 500 tonnes of food from its trucks as part of President Hugo Chavez’s campaign to stem shortages.

The leftist Chavez this week created a state food distributor and loosened some price controls, seeking to end months of shortages for staples like milk and eggs that have caused long lines and upset his supporters in the OPEC nation.

You mean price controls cause long lines and shortages!?  Who would have guessed?

Business leaders say shortages of these products are caused by strict price controls, which have lagged inflation that is Latin America’s highest.

Latin America’s highest inflation - that is a feather in your cap, Hugo.

He announced an increase of more than 30% in the retail price of milk in an effort to ease shortages that have created headaches for consumers of all social classes.

He also threatened to expropriate companies selling food above regulated prices.

For those of you who didn’t take advantage of your government funded education “expropriate” means the government steals private property.  I shudder to think that anyone could be comfortable with such a heavy handed government that would steal the property of businesses who dare charge prices that individuals are willing to pay.  I’ve said it before, politicians have no idea what products should cost.  Only the market can set prices.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Communism/Socialism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.