Venezuela’s Die-Hard Belief in Socialism Must End

There is no shortage of media coverage of the economic crisis that Venezuela is currently facing. Once a regional powerhouse, Venezuela is a lurid case study of the failure of socialist economic policies. One needn’t look any further than the results of the numerous price and currency controls implemented by the late Hugo Chávez, and current President Nicolás Maduro, to comprehend Venezuela’s dire situation. Scarcity of basic goods, such as toilet paper and diapers, a shortage of plane tickets for those who dare to flee the country, and a national currency that is barely worth more than monopoly money are the fixtures of Venezuela’s 21st-century socialist economy. More…