Mexico is starting to look like Venezuela... U.S. next?

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Mexico is starting to look like Venezuela

Mexico is in the midst of a crisis again.

And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with the border wall that caused the US government to be hopelessly deadlocked for more than a month.

Or the economy. Or murders and violence. Or drug trafficking. Or bird flu.

Nope. Mexico is battling an enormous problem with its oil pipelines.

In a way that almost sounds ridiculous.

But oil thieves have been drilling holes in Mexico’s extensive network of oil and gas piplelines across the country to steal fuel and sell it on the black market.

 

... It’s almost starting to look like Venezuela – the storybook example of what happens to a country gripped by corrupt socialism.

Around 20 years ago, Hugo Chavez came to power and enacted political reforms that granted him and his government enormous power. And he started massive, socialist programs in Venezuela that the country couldn’t afford.

And despite the country’s rich natural resource sector, it went broke. 

 

... The point is, you can look at Venezuela and say “what a bunch of idiots.” Or you can point to Mexico and say the same.

But let’s hold up a mirror to the situation in the US today…

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Pay attention to the Ocasio-Cortez "Green New Deal".  It is designed to bankrupt the U.S. by socialism.

Venezuela. A Case of Socialist Organized Theft

Much has been written about the economic disaster perpetrated by the Maduro-Chavez regime in Venezuela. The magnitude of it is simply difficult to match. A sad global example of how to destroy a rich country.

The mistake that many make is to think that this wreck has been caused by a combination of incompetence and folly. And they are wrong. The Venezuelan socialist regime has carried out the largest organized robbery in history and has done so with a perfectly designed plan.

The plan was always to expropriate the wealth of the whole country for the benefit of a few political leaders through plundering, destruction of currency and decapitalizacón of the state oil company

What has happened to Venezuela is not a disaster or a coincidence, it is socialism.

 

... The strategy is simple, and it is textbook socialism: The government massively increases spending, subsidies and public employment printing local currency thinking that the dollars come from heaven because the Government says so. Then, it destroys its economy by expropriating companies, sinking the private initiative and imposing prices that do not cover the cost of production due to the destruction of the purchasing power of the currency. As such, the economy enters into a downward spiral, so the government continues to spend even more in nominal terms and finances it by printing more worthless paper notes while its foreign exchange reserves plummet. The currency becomes worthless and the government generates hyperinflation and poverty.

[John Foote + 1,135]

I'm no fan of socialism, far prefer regulated capitalism, but what happened in Venezuela is old fashion depotism. They did get naive, undereducated voters looking for a free lunch that was promised to them to get into power, and the failure of trickle down prior to the current clowns allowed it to happen.

In the end a cultures willingness to work for good and enable people matters more than the system chosen. Standard Oil had to be split up. Ma Bell had to be split up. That enabled competition and allowed capitalism to thrive. Mexico lost money in oil at $100/barrel. Over taxed, too much corruption, but the fundamental fault is a society embedded with cronyism and lack of law for all. Norway is far more socialist, and they manage it well.

And in Mexico, it's not an individual issue. Live in Texas, and tell me who works harder than a Mexican national? That is a gross generality, but theirs is a drive to embrace the American dream, more than most "Americans" I know. 

It's empowering people and let people succeed that works. Sincerity, transparency, education, and base line infrastructure matter more. Politicians selling entitlement, and MAGA is a version of that too, there are always buyers, but it's fools gold. Tax rates and national healthcare, or whatever, is not the fundamental issue. It's provide the environment, and to paraphrase Reagan, get out of the way as they race past you succeeding.