Dark Christmas in Socialist Venezuela

Christmas is much merrier when you don’t have to live under end-stage socialism. Better lit too:

Marilyn Pitre recalls taking her family on evening strolls at Christmas time through Altamira Plaza in Venezuela’s capital, soaking up the dazzling lights and giant tree made of light bulbs in a display that once drew comparisons to New York City’s Rockefeller Center.

That was before crisis struck Venezuela. Now the 40-year-old mother of two wouldn’t dare set foot in the plaza after dark, fearing robbers. And this season, for the first time in years, no festive lights will bring it to life.

Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves, has trouble meeting its energy needs. As Milton Friedman observed,

“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”

Socialism means putting government in charge of everything.

More reasons Christmas is less than merry in Venezuela:

Inflation is expected to hit 2,400 percent by the year’s end, said Henkel Garcia, director of the Caracas-based consulting firm Econometrica, adding that minimum wage workers today have a fifth of the purchasing power than nearly two decades ago, when the late President Hugo Chavez launched Venezuela’s socialist revolution.

Why would anyone inflict this on their own country? I would ask a Bernie Sanders supporter, but all I get from them is duckspeak.

On a tip from Bodhisattva.