In a refreshingly powerful and direct statement, Venezuela’s bishops Monday blamed “Marxist socialism” and “communism” by name for the horrors and chaos gripping their country, according to a story in El Universal.
The bishops said the long lines of people trying to buy food and other basic necessities and the constant rise in prices are the result of the government’s decision to “impose a political-economic system of socialist, Marxist or communist,” which is “totalitarian and centralist” and “undermines the freedom and rights of individuals and associations.”
The Venezuelan bishops specifically stated that the private sector was critical for the well being of the country. The document, read by Monsignor Diego Padron in Spanish, said the country needs “a new entrepreneurial spirit with audacity and creativity."
So not only did these bishops diagnose the cause of the misery correctly; they also warned that communism harms the poor most of all.
I think the Pope could use a copy of the new edition (fourth) of Managerial Economics, like the one I sent to the Venezuelan President.
The challenges in Venezuela are the result of a government project to seize control of access to food. According to the Economist, “the real source of trouble, private-sector economists agree, is price and exchange controls imposed by the government, along with nationalizations of food processing and farmland.” While the president continues to promise economic measures to alleviate the crisis, Catholic bishops “laid the blame for the crisis squarely on the "totalitarian and centralist system.”
ReplyDeleteInvestor's Business Daily notes that “the system… has failed wherever it's been tried and created growing poverty among large sectors of the population, particularly among those with the fewest economic resources.” And that “thanks to socialism, the country is falling apart. This week, UBS investment bank estimated that Venezuela had an 80% likelihood of default this year.”
It seems to me that Venezuela’s bishops have procured their own copy of the new edition of Managerial Economics. Why hasn’t the Venezuelan president read his yet? Bankrupting a country cannot be good for one’s political career.
References:
- Empty shelves and rhetoric; Venezuela. (2015, Jan 24). The Economist, 414, 30.
- Venezuela's socialism is falling apart. (2015, Jan 20). Investor's Business Daily