...“Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World,” by Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell, is billed as a “worldwide tour guide written in plain English” which takes readers on a not-so-luxurious expedition into three countries that have embraced socialism – North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba – using beer as an indicator of economic concern.
“In Cuba, there were only two types of beer, almost the same in alcohol content and both tasted like skunky Budweiser. In North Korea, it was just god awful,” Lawson, who is also the director of the William J. O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom at Southern Methodist University, told Fox News. “And, in Venezuela, the country has basically run out of beer because the government planners couldn’t import enough barley.”
In Lawson’s summation, why would employees of a government-controlled plant bother to go out of their way to seek out the resources, extra cost and energy to produce 30 different types of beer or wine when it is easy to make two, and there is no incentive otherwise to excel?
“We were on the border of Colombia and Venezuela, and the Colombian side was awash with all kinds of beer. On the other side, Venezuela had nothing for sale and people had to cross into Colombia just to get the basic necessities,” said Powell, who is also the director of the Free Market Institute and a professor of economics at Texas Tech University. “It’s an important lesson for ‘Democratic Socialists’ in the U.S. to remember that (Hugo) Chavez came to power in free and fair elections, but socialism centralizes economic power and the system starts nationalizing farms, factories, even hotels. When oil prices were $100 a barrel, Venezuela could mask the dysfunction, but as oil prices went down over the last five years, they couldn’t hide the reality.”
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Originally Posted by Peter1469
