Very fair Socialism shares its misery equally unless you are the kakistocrat with power.
I love this quote.
"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it." Thomas Sowell

Or more precisely, a capitalist base with enough people with altruistic principles.

Understood. Yes, the complete failure of the looter/moocher state takes longer than most think, but I want to be the first to swoop in and terraform it.

Careful here, jbrenner. The Stalin Solution for failed socialism/communism (guns and gulags) hasn't been brought fully into play yet. Venezuela will likely have to go through that experience before you can swoop.

Or, as I like to say: "Socialist policies can appear to work as long as there is a strong enough capitalist base to support them."

Many more times than that, I am afraid.

Yes, it can appear to.
And if you have enough spoils and a rather limited amount of people to share them amongst, then the appearance can go on for a long time.
Chavez's redistribution of oil wealth and income raised the standard of living of millions of people for a number of years. But he was giving out and promising more than he was taking in, thus it was doomed to failure. The drop in the price of oil brought reality home to roost rather dramatically.

In contrast, a place like the United Arab Emirates could go on for years living off the collective oil earnings without hardly any of its citizens doing much to produce those earnings. Birthright socialism. Bring in foreign workers to produce, then keep most of the fruits of production. Foreigners work according to their ability, citizens benefit according to their need.
And they Need to go to Disneyworld, obviously.

Yes, of course it's not socialism itself, it's just that the right people aren't in there to run it. Craziness feeds on itself.

Probably after they revalue their currency at least two more times ;)

I saw an interview recently by two Venezuelans and they were making the point that a change in government wouldn't matter too much. The opposition were socialist as well.
They showed some on the street interviews and the people didn't blame socialism, they blamed Maduro.
Unfortunately I don't remember where I saw the interview, so can't direct you to it.

There was an attempted coup a few weeks ago, but it failed.

When will be the time for me to swoop in like a vulture capitalist in Venezuela? Not yet, but perhaps soon.

I'd be stunned if they weren't counterfeiting US dollars instead, and at the behest of the Maduro government to pay their military and top level bureaucrats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1gUR...

Here is another. Some specific straightforward ammunition between :30 and 1:30.

The rest of the video has more stats and is interesting, but they require more in depth understanding of background data and changes in the politics to fairly/properly make sense out of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCIdm...

This might help. Former citizen of Venezuela.
About minute 4:00 there is an interesting bit of data regarding the Maduro diet.

lol. That would be tough, wouldn't it.

Time for Venezuelan revolution, and a stable, free, capitalist government. Where is Milton Friedman?

When "discussing" (a rarity nowadays as it quickly moves to anger on the part of the other person) whether socialism works, I always ask for an example of it in this planet right now. The usual Scandinavian countries are cited, and I point out that they are smaller, more homogeneous (or used to be), etc.
So my question is: Are there actually any countries where this is working (I know there are not), and what are good counterarguments when the aforementioned countries are used?

And, of course, there is always the argument from my protagonists that, well, gee, it really hasn't been tried, or it needs really smart people to do it right, etc. :-)

I'm looking for ammunition in the form of specific data or examples.

“Socialism never has worked and never will.”
But it can appear to work. Just like leeches can appear to heal.

And the meltdown continues. If Americans were wise we would look at this every time someone like Bernie Sanders or that Ocasio-Cortez(?) woman open their mouths. No. Socialism never has worked and never will.

One good thing that may come of this: they might get to the point that they have to start all over as a nation. Then they will have the opportunity to start over with a government based on protection of natural rights.

They are both reading from the same playbook, ... the Communist Manifesto.

Interesting. Venezuela must be inspired by how American Democrats would try to save a failing economy.

The Venezuelan economy is so bad right now that people can't afford to leave and can't afford not to leave.