Brickbat: Always Low Prices

Reuters

The Venezuelan government has seized three dozen supermarkets, accusing the chain that owns them of hoarding goods. President Nicolas Maduro has accused capitalists of conspiring with the Obama administration to undermine the government.

Comments

[Libertarian]

"President Nicolas Maduro has accused capitalists of conspiring with the Obama administration.."

Apparently, Maduro is confused as to Obama's economic philosophy.

[Illocust]

It is pretty funny. Obama would like nothing else than for Maduro to succeed. It would give him a real life example of how government control doesn't ruin an economy.

[invisible furry hand]

Here's an article that isn't subscriber-only. And from it, this extra fact:

Directors and executives from both Dia a Dia and pharmacy chain Farmatodo were arrested on charges of destabilising the economy.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah. Was gonna comment about that.

[Catatafish]

Pretty sure if a drug store has the ability to destabilize your economy, your economy was shit to begin with.

[Monty Crisco]

I don't understand why no one - and I mean NO ONE- ever makes the point that the left's preferred economic policies ALWAYS end like this. No one EVER points out that Cuba is the left's economic utopia made real. And what is going on right now in Venezuela is EXACTLY what would happen here if LIDDY Warren and her horde of OWS proponents could enact any legislation that they wanted.

[Agammamon]

What do you mean 'no one'?

I do it, most of the posters here do it. Economists and historians do it.

When Fox news does it, people roll their eyes and go 'Faux News'.

Its not that this information isn't *known* or hidden, its that there's a ton of people who have personal incentives to *ignore it.

If you're a politician, what gives you more prestige and personal power, letting an economy bang on by itself or constantly finding 'problems' that you have the solution for? The latter, obviously, and that's what they go for.

The sad thing is, most of them aren't self-aware enough to realize that this is what they're doing. They think they're doing the *right* thing.

And for the rest of the people, its *comforting* to think they're victims. That the only reason they're not sipping wine in their summer villa is because some meany old capitalist is hogging all the money. That they don't actually *need* to work hard, that they're not sitting where they're at solely because of the decisions *they* made.

Its damn hard to get a man to understand something if his lively-hood depends upon him not understanding it.

[Monty Crisco]

I guess what I mean is why leftists like Warren are so rarely pressed on the issue of WHY is Cuba such a massive failure since it has enacted so many of HER prescribed policies.

For example in this link:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/la.....rk-n301751

A cuban who claims to be an NPR-toting liberal claims that all cuba needs is economic freedom and freedom from dependency on the government. I am surprised that she doesn't choke on the cognitive dissonance.

Like that dude who shot the three muslims. He described himself as a "gun-toting liberal". I don't think that is possible to be. Belief in one necessarily precludes belief in the other.

[Agammamon]

Who's going to get close to here to press her?

Not us that's for certain.

The MSM - they've bought into the lie because it gives them *access* (and makes there job easier - just parrot the administration's press releases and *voila!* The invitation to the White House Press dinner is in the mail).

Plus, what brings in the bucks for a news agency and its staff? Stories about how everything is all right and better than it was 10 years ago? Or stories about how the latest villain du jour is stealing your families vitality and only bid daddy government can save you. Story at 11.

Public Choice Theory and Revealed Preference explain *all*.

[Illocust]

Eh, gun toting liberal isn't surprising. There is a reason gun banning doesn't get passed, and it has to do with democrat politicians outside of new York and California knowing they'll lose their job if they try.

[prolefeed]

Yeah, my mother-in-law was a Democratic state senator in a rural area where she, and her family, and pretty much all of their neighbors used rifles to put meat in the freezer.

Liberalism and being against gun control are not mutually exclusive.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Er...it's ALL WE DO.

[Libertarian]

I think Monty was implying the Left (and its media) with his statement -- and that the lightbulb never goes off in their brains. Converts, of leftists into free-marketers, are extremely rare.

[Suthenboy]

You don't understand why the left leaning won't point out that their preferred policies end in disaster?

I don't get it either. It is a mystery.

[Monty Crisco]

NO, Suthen, I don't get why such an EASILY brought up point is never brought up in the MSM by certain individuals on the right (beacuase there are no libertarians to do it in prominent positions). I GET that WE do it here all the time - that is not converting anyone. It is a simple point and if someone on the right wanted to absolutely shutdown Warren in a debate that would be all he or she would have to do.

[Stickler Meeseeks]

"President Nicolas Maduro has accused capitalists of conspiring with the Obama administration to undermine the government."

This is hilarious on so many levels.

[Agammamon]

Jeezy-petes, how many governments is Obama trying to undermine at the same time.

US
Iraq
Libya
Venezuela

[Libertarian]

Now be fair. At least he's good at it. Look at Libya.

[Bardas Phocas]

That Obama sounds like a very bad man.

[ErinJCollier]

my best friend's step-sister makes $71 hourly on the internet . She has been out of a job for 9 months but last month her income was $17391 just working on the internet for a few hours. visit this site...........

????? http://www.netpay20.com

[invisible furry hand]

don't tell us, tell the Venezualans

[WTF]

Yeah, they might actually be able to afford some toilet paper.

[Agammamon]

Still won't be any to *buy*, but if there were they could afford all they wanted.

[Agammamon]

Or, if they make enough dollars, they can wipe their arses with them.

Then they won't *need* toilet paper.

Though that will probably lead to improper foreign influence as the Venezuelans try to get the US government to make our bills soft and absorbent.

[Catatafish]

"A burgeoning black market using the little known currency of Shitcoins."

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Conspiring capitalists? What a piker. At least go full 'speculators and international bankers.'

[Old Man With Candy]

The currently accepted Prog term is "banksters." Which is odd since they are predominantly male.

[Juice]

I think that's an accurate term to describe the crony banks.

[C. S. P. Schofield]

South American nitwit dictators have been playing the "plucky underdog against the U.S." card since before Socialist Governments were a thing. Very occasionally they have been justified. But the roots of the South American tinpot revolution cycle go back to the early 19th century, and aren't likely to resolve themselves soon.

Paul Johnson deals with some of it inTHE BIRTH OF THE MODERN. Highly recommended.

Still think we could throw out the Castro Brothers with one troop of boy scouts and the Justin Beiber fan club. If we replaced,them with the corrupt scumbags currently misgoverning Detroit, Jersey City, Chicago, and similar we could improve the governance in all those places AND Cuba.

The South/Central Americans wouldn't Hate/Fear/Love us any more or less, and we'd have actually accomplished something for a,change.

[Gordilocks]

The predation and depravity being visited upon the people of Venezuela is getting worse with each passing week.

How much longer til Maduro and the rest of the Chavistas are swinging from lamp posts?

[C. S. P. Schofield]

Has it reached the point where families with three sons have one in the Army, one in the Revolution, and one in the Church, to cover all bases?

[prolefeed]

How much longer til Maduro and the rest of the Chavistas are swinging from lamp posts?

Blaming it on the kulaks and wreckers can work, PR-wise, for decades.

[Karl Hungus]

President Nicolas Maduro has accused capitalists of conspiring with the Obama administration to undermine the government.

A government that claims complete ownership of its country's economy and seeks to nationalize private industry . . . and Maduro thinks Obama would want to undermine such a venture?

[CatoTheElder]

Obama could blame everything on Bush. Maduro does not have the luxury of being able to blame everything on his predecessor. So, of course, he reverts to the tried and true South American tradition of blaming everything that goes wrong on the US.

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[Sigivald]

Imperialist Wreckers.