Venezuela Vs. Sweden: Why Ocasio-Cortez and American Socialists Always and Ignorantly Get it Wrong

Over the past few months we have talked about how the socialists in Washington, e.g. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, etc., have proposed plans to turn us into a socialistic country with the government controlling most aspects of our lives and charging us ALL very high taxes to do so. We have proven over and over that their plans cannot be financed by taxing only the wealthy but they would need extremely high taxation of ALL Americans to finance their pipe dreams while stripping us of our freedom.

They make two stupid mistakes while trying to convince Americans that socialism is good. The ignore the reality that socialism in Venezuela has failed miserably, turning a once rich country into a desperate hell hole on earth. And they totally do not understand what is really going on in Sweden, a country they like to hold up as a beacon of hope for socialism.

Let’s start with how socialism has destroyed Venezuela, as described by a recent Fox News article by Maxim Lott:

• Venezuela was once the wealthiest country in South America.
• Its vast oil reserves provided a high standard of living for most people throughout the country.
• Today, its oil industry is in steep decline, millions of citizens have left the country, there is mass starvation among just about the entire population, and violence reigns supreme, which much of it carried out by government thugs.
• Consider what social activist and Venezuelan Giannini Raffo says about the current situation in his home country: “Socialism not only takes away from people the access to basic food and medicines, but also creates an environment in which life is worth nothing.” 
• The country starting slipping into this socialism hole back in the 1990s when Hugo Chavez was elected president.
• During his campaign he promised that he was not a radical socialist even though he was a great admirer and friend of Communist, Fidel Castro, claiming that he was ''neither for savage capitalism, nor socialism, nor Communism''. 
• But some Venezuelans saw through his lies and news reports reported at the time that some of the wealthier citizens had started to move some of their wealth out of the country, afraid that the socialist in waiting Chavez would start seizing assets once elected, a wise move in hindsight.
• Chavez started his term as President by re-writing the country’s Constitution in order to consolidate and grow his power.
• The new Constitution promised free healthcare, free college, and “social justice,” all of which sound like a typical press release from American socialist like Ocasio-Cortez.
• Chavez went on to stack the country’s Supreme Court with 12 additional justices, all of which he handpicked, further consolidating his control, and a tactic that liberals in this country have proposed.
• Chavez now proceeded to terrorize the country, seizing private assets, raising taxes on the wealthy, making dissent a crime, nationalizing private businesses, and generally controlling everything that went on in the country.
• And once oil prices collapsed, the industry that was holding the country together, the economy collapsed, having been destroyed by Chavez’s economic actions.
• As a result, annual inflation today is about 12,000%, oil production is down about 40% form the peak, and basics like toilet paper are in very short supply.
• Many have fled their home country, and those that stayed behind have waited in line for hours just to get some meager food supplies with studies showing that on average, the Venezuelan adult has lost 24 pounds as a result of food shortages brought on by socialism.
• A former citizen and current activist is quoted in the article: “Living in Venezuela was not living anymore. [My family] only spent their time trying to find food and medicines to survive. The apartment that [my family] left behind – my home for 24 years – is now empty. They are not coming back. Don't let someone ruin your next generations with absurd ideas of socialism. Educate and disseminate ideas of freedom as far you can.”

Nasty stuff, a country literally managed itself into oblivion with the resultant human suffering as a result of rampant socialism practices.

But wait! There is hope! Socialism politicians in this country now try to tell us that they practice a “different type of socialism,” more like the socialism in Sweden. But do they even know what they are talking about? According to a recent article by John Stossel, ”Sweden Isn’t Socialist,” they are clueless as to what actually is going on in Sweden:

• He starts out his article with the following true statement: “For years, I've heard American leftists say Sweden is proof that socialism works, that it doesn't have to turn out as badly as the Soviet Union or Cuba or Venezuela did.”
• But that is not the case, according to Swedish historian, Johan Norberg, someone who probably knows a lot more about Sweden than people like Ocasio-Cortez: "Sweden is not socialist — because the government doesn't own the means of production. To see that, you have to go to Venezuela or Cuba or North Korea," says Norberg."We did have a period in the 1970s and 1980s when we had something that resembled socialism: a big government that taxed and spent heavily. And that's the period in Swedish history when our economy was going south."
• But unlike what Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez would tell you, when Sweden started down the socliams path, GDP fell, the country’s economic growth lagged other countries, inflation increased while taxes increased.
• So the country and its socialism policies resulted in higher taxes and less economic growth.
• Taxes were so outrageously high that Astrid Lindgren, author of the Pippi Longstocking children's books, had to pay a tax of 102% on any new book she sold, i.e. by increasing her wealth she would be paying more taxes than what her marginal income was.
• But even taxing people at such ridiculous rates did not bring in enough money to fund the country’s socialism.
• "People couldn't get the pension that they thought they depended on for the future," recounts Norberg. "At that point the Swedish population just said, enough, we can't do this."
• As a result, the country took a massive step back from socialism hell, cutting government spending, reducing taxation, un-nationalizing industries, getting rid of government monopolies and selling off state-owned businesses.
• The government also reduced pension [aka their version of Social Security] promises that were not possible to be funded.
• According to historian Norberg, these steps turned an "impoverished peasant nation...into one of the world's richest countries."
• Norberg goes on to state that “when it comes to free markets, when it comes to competition, when it comes to free trade, Sweden is actually more free market."
• Sweden’s economy has fewer business regulations, fewer special interest subsidies, and no government bailouts than the U.S. government and economy.
• This decline of socialism in the country allowed the government to viably fund a national pension system, 18 month parental leave, and government paid child care.
• But while they fund these programs, the government and the Swedish political class do not operate them since when the government did run these operations it did not go well: "Having the government manage all of these things didn't work well.”
• Norberg again: "We realized in Sweden that with these government monopolies, we don't get the innovation that we get when we have competition." 
• Thus, in Sweden there is no public school, it is all voucher system to private schools, which resulted in much better education once you took the politicians out of the equation.
• The country also privatized their version of Social Security, again getting politicians out of the process as much as possible.
• According to Norberg, this switch to a private version of Social Security saved the system from financial collapse and ruin.

As a result, Sweden now ranks higher than the U.S. on many economic freedom measures, hardly making it more socialistic than us. Thus, Sweden got the government and political class out of education and retirement programs, reduced taxes, reduced government regulations, sold off assets it had not business operating in the first place, and sold off and privatized nationalized industries. All of which made it richer and stronger and provided better lives than before for its citizens.

But in this country:

• Socialists like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders want to raise taxes and increase business regulations (e.g. the inane New Green Deal.), the opposite of what Sweden did. 
• They want to cap personal earnings (Ocasio-Cortez), the opposite of what Sweden.
• They want to give out taxpayer wealth to special business interests (crony capitalism), interests that usually align with their political attitudes and financial sources, e.g. “green businesses” like the ones that failed miserably when Obama went all socialistic with Solyndra, A123, Spectra, and a whole bunch of other Democratic run companies that siphoned off renewable energy grants before going bankrupt, the opposite of what Sweden did. 
• They want to expand government programs like Medicare and Social Security rather than getting themselves out of the business like Sweden did. 
• Others like Presidential candidate socialist Elizabeth Warren want to nationalize industries, the opposite of what Sweden did.

Given the positions that American socialism politicians are taking, it sure smells more like Venezuela than it smells of Sweden. In Venezuela the political class took over more and more of citizens’ lives with catastrophic results. In Sweden, the political class took over less and less of citizens’ lives, and wealth and freedom, with great results.

So, when people like Sanders, Warren, Ocasio-Cortez and other socialists tell you that their programs are good and humane and only the rich will have to pay, remember that Chavez told his countrymen in Venezuela the exact same thing. And now those people that believed him are hungry, freedomless, fearful, poorer, and desperate.

Side note: Sweden went and blew the whole program when they went to an open borders immigration policy, allowing millions of Middle East immigrants to enter their country without limits or background checks. As a result, rape, homicides, and other violent crime is up in the country with Swedes ever more fearful for their lives and the safety of their wives and daughters. 

Hmmm, open borders? Isn't that a rallying cry of Sanders, Warren, Ocasio-Cortez and other socialists in this country? Given how wrong these people are about Sweden's lack of socialism, I would bet they are just as wrong about open borders.

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