Venezuela's March to Serfdom: The Final Chapter

Tonight's post is the long-awaited last installment in our series on the evils of collectivism.

Last time, I posed the question concerning how collectivist planners implement plans which no one can totally agree on. In Venezuela, just like every other similar experiment in history, the answer is simple: coercion. Brute force. Subjugation of the opposition by a strong dictatorship at all costs.

Chavez started out small by kicking out all foreign investment and banning foreign companies from doing business. But more recently, as more have grown more critical of his collectivist initiatives, he's issued an executive order banning TV networks that broadcast viewpoints opposing his administration. He's also obtained "emergency powers" authority to circumvent the legislature in order to implement his plan, so that the squabbling opposition can't "stand in the way of the common good." So the free press and legislative government that once existed are now replaced with a relentless propaganda machine used to support an authoritarian autocracy. The necessary framework for full implementation of the plan is finally in place.

Mere seconds after Chavez announced he would nationalize all industries, investors rapidly pulled their savings out of the country. The Venezuelan stock market plummeted some 75%. The entire net wealth of the country has severly diminished.

One particlar result of Chavez's price controls on food is illustrated by recent shortages of chicken and beef all across the country's supermarkets, according to this AP report. Because profits are illegal and prices are set by the government, farmers have no incentive to bring their products to market. The laws of supply and demand have been abolished. Because free prices aren't allowed to function by signaling what's profitable, it's impossible for producers and merchants to calculate what the needs and wants of the society are.


Empty meat shelves in a Caracas supermarket.

Notice in the article how Chavez turns around and blames the capitalists as the reason for the shortages. This is what most dictators do: they use propaganda to shift blame to the opposition and its ideology, thus allowing them to further tighten their grip and hold on to power even longer.

In closing, the point of all this was to show that as a result of all of this collectivist thinking, which all started out as a great idea, the people of Venezuela are being made slaves right before our very eyes. Their civil liberties have been trampled upon, along with their economic freedom to work, to save, and to create wealth through voluntary exchange.

Could something like this ever happen in our beloved United States? Seizing corporate profits for the "common good" seems like something only a radical like Chavez or Castro would propose this side of the hemisphere, right? In closing, I leave you this clip, to help you answer this on your own:



Thanks for tuning in. God help us all.