Poor Venezuela? WE ARE Venezuela (without the riots)
What happened to Venezuela?
I watched a Fox News report about the corruption of Sean Penn's favorite government and how violently they are putting down riots by people who can't buy toilet paper. A senator joined the broadcast and talked about what we need to do for Venezuela. At face-value, she has a point, of course. Why should we do business with a rogue regime and support such low-lifes and Sean Penn's buddy, Nicolas Maduro? I would take great pleasure in seeing these people dragged into the street and shot. It is what they richly deserve.
But...
When you get right down to it, who are we to scold other governments for running their countries into the ground? We Are Venezuela! The only difference between what our government (both parties) are doing to us and what was done to the real Venezuelans is they didn't have so far to fall and Maduro and the fat-headed Hugo Chavez tried to do it all at once. Also, Americans are far more docile and naive than most other people. Thank you, educators! But the basic results are the same as the results we see here every time the government pretends to be helping us. Whatever they pretend to be helping with becomes more expensive and more scarce. And quality plummets. Look at Obamacare. We used to bitch when we saw places where healthcare would "skyrocket" by 11% (usually after a stupid mandate was tacked onto insurance policies by the government). Now we have states paying 120% more this year than last. The entire country is paying well into the double digits more every year. Of course, I speak only of the productive class. The taking class is saving a bundle while we foot their bills as well. According to U.S. News, not a wide-eyed, conservative publication, The report, published online Friday in the journal Health Affairs, also showed another distinction for 2015: The federal government now pays for the largest share of health care. [emphasis mine]. That means after you pay all you medical expanses, made inhumanly higher by Obamacare, you then pay more, as a productive tax-paying citizen than those who pay no taxes.
Our path is unsustainable.
And it isn't ONLY medical insurance scams we have to worry about. How much of the economy does Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security (Ponzi scheme), college loans (a con of epic proportion), the FHA continued buying of shit mortgages, and Food stamps represent? Add on the 47 job training programs we have from DC, not a one of which reports a single result. And NONE OF THESE, in their present form are sustainable. If we don't back away form them quickly and create a growing economy again we will one day SOON be rioting in the streets because we can't find basic goods. The pace at which both parties are now bringing us to ruin increases just a little every year. Smirk all you like, then demonstrate historically how "Venezuela" is not the result of Socialism? Here's a fact, it is ALWAYS the result! Just because it is happening slower here, and we have more wealth to destroy, doesn't mean we are safe from it. I say frequently that the laws of economics are as hard and fast as the laws of gravity. If we keep whistling past the graveyard while tsk-tsking places like Venezuela, we will one day find ourselves without a paddle, on the headwaters of the mighty Feces River.
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Matt Jordan is the author of Street Politics: It Ain't Your Daddy's GOP Anymore! Available at Amazon