Even Bernie Sanders didn't want to be associated with what's going on in Venezuela. "When I talk about democratic socialist, I'm not looking at Venezuela. I'm not looking at Cuba. I'm looking at countries like Denmark and Sweden."
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vide...

I was in college in 2007 and I remember one of my professors and some classmates raving about how wonderful the new Venezuelan national health care system was going to be and how the United States could really learn something from their good example. Now toddlers are dying from scraped knees because they can't get basic antibiotics. Starving people can't do much with "free" healthcare.

I recently read an article by a woman reporter living in Venezuela who had grown up there and returned to report on the countries condition. She had pictures of stores with almost no food in them (this report showed pictures of stores with fully stocked shelves), she reported about going to different stores on her 'designated' days to do so and finding little if anything on her 'approved' list of items she could buy on those days. She wrote of store clerks telling her that they did not expect deliveries and she could try again the next week. Sounds a bit of a contrast compared to this story.

sorry - (I used to think) psychology....

There is a word for them: Adulting. And the more we "protect" our children, by busing them to school, instead of getting there themselves, by forcing them to wear helmets lest they get a scratch, by giving out "A's" for participation, etc., etc. - the more we make sure that they never hatch from the egg. And if the beak does break through the shell, we give them drugs, TV, government-run school dumbing-down (being redundant here?).

Maybe the author missed the wall Venezuela built to keep people from leaving, or the wall’s defenders being overrun as people crossed the border to Colombia (I am in Bogota, Colombia as I write this) to go to supermarkets for food in a border town, or missed the people are eating their pets (dogs and cats) and broke into the zoo to slaughter animals — including some endangered species.

The extent to which Venezuela is still functioning is in direct proportion to the number of victims that the looters have yet to loot. The Nation is hardly an objective source of information given their friendliness to socialism.

That WOULD make an interesting psychological study. When strongly influenced by the anti-Vietnam War left, I recall thinking socialism was the way to go when I did my two years a slave time drafted into the Marines.
Genes? My mother's side of the family is mostly libs and Mom would scoff at Dad for always voting the straight Republican ticket.
I voted for Jimmy Carter. By the time his crappy four years were up, I was chomping at the bit to vote for Ronald Reagan.
I developed into a solid constitutional conservative during the 80s.
During the 90s a co-worker complained about some Rush Limbaugh on the radio. I later tuned in out of curiosity and became a fan.
I was all "Yeah!" "Yeah, that's right." "Uh-huh!" "Yeah!"

Proclivity to socialism - maybe it's in the genes of some of us - would make an interesting psychological study. I would argue that so many socialists never got over learning of the non-existence (It's not FAIR!!) of Santa-Claus. Emotionally stuck, then, in childhood fantasies, they also have a Captain Marvel "I have the power!!" complex they take into later years (I won't say adulthood).

I used to think psychologically was a subject for those who were screwed up, but it's become more interesting to me (which maybe says something about me).

Venezuela: A perfect example of a socialist society where all is equal. Equally poor, equally miserable, equally defeated.

But the control freak "progressives" in this country think they can ride the same jackass on locoweed so much better.

Socialism is a parasite that does not die until the host capitulates (dies). So long as there is one drop of blood....

Check the ladies passport, I think she landed in another country.

Inflation at 300%+ food lines over a kilometer long and not sure if there will be food when you get to the front. Looting no jobs hey just get the Maduro govt to fix the issue grow a garden and just barter. In the mean time be productive and develope more environmentally friendly energy, Research drug development .Oh forget it I am just waiting in line for a meal and a kilometer long line would take hours and hours.FOF

the author funded by some of the worst creature organizations on earth...surprised sorass wasn't in there too.
Mellon foundation!...one of the most vial black ig-nobility creatures in the world.

It says there are "scarcities of basic goods [and] widespread changes in food-consumption patterns," with some people going an entire day without a meal, but it's not "hell on earth." I'm fortunate enough to never to have faced scarcity of food and basic goods. Compared to my fortunate life, I would call that hell on earth. It's a matter of opinion.

They also found that the lives of the rich are not that affected by the crisis, the middle-class is struggling more, and "the poor are hardest hit". Isn't this true all the time, regardless of the nature of the crisis, the country, or the economic system?

This quote illustrates how the socialist mindset: "It’s not easy to get food, and what you can get is at very high prices. You’ve seen the long lines [at stores selling price-controlled goods]. People do have purchasing power; they have money. The problem is that people are selling things at six or seven times the [regulated] price, and there’s no control from the state. That’s the thing that’s bothering people the most.” (emphasis added)
He says the problem is no control from the state, but the problem he's describing is too much control. He says people are selling, which implies also buying, at several times the gov't-controlled price. That means there's not enough of those goods. Ordinarily that would motivate people to make more, but the gov't makes it illegal. He seems to think his money is worth more than those goods, if only the gov't would enforce the price controls.

It sounds like hell on earth. _The Nation* is saying it could be worse. I agree, but given all the evils the world has seen, that's a really low bar.

OTOH, if the people start to ignore government, then the black (free) market will start immediately to improve the situation. The mainstream media always exaggerate things to create more opportunity for meddling by the great and powerful banksters of NY.

Consider the source. The Nation is about as leftist as can be. (I didn't read the article. Can't tolerate that rag since I subscribed and cancelled back in the early 90s.)
The author's funding? "My research has been supported by fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Institute of Labor and Employment, the University of California, Berkeley and the University at Albany, SUNY." Garbage in, garbage out.