I hate the taste of beer. It tastes like pee. In fact, I don’t say I don’t drink beer because it tastes like pee; I say I don’t drink pee because it tastes like beer.

But every time I tell a beer drinker this, they say the same thing: “You just haven’t had good beer.” This article reminds me of that…

As of late, the Left loves socialism.

Loves. Bernie. Alexandria (here and here)

Jim Carrey loves it (here).

The Young Turks love it (here).

Love, love, love. For the Nazi’s favorite economic system.

So how’s it working out? Not so great in Venezuela.

People are desperate to flee, turning to Colombia for a better life for the moment.

Fox News reports:

Thousands upon thousands of Venezuelans pour into Colombia over the crowd cross-country bridge, their faces gaunt, carrying little more than a backpack. Rail-thin women cradle their tiny babies, and beg along the trash-strewn gutters. Teens hawk everything from cigarettes to sweets and water for small change.

The young, the old and the disabled cluster around the lone Western Union office – recently established to deal with the Venezuelan influx – in the hopes of receiving or sending a few dollars to send home. Without passports or work permits, the Venezuelans – many with university degrees or decent jobs in what was once the wealthiest nation in Latin America – are now resorting to whatever it takes to survive.

They aren’t kidding — whatever it takes.

“Hair, looking for hair,” an older man choruses through the crowd, turning to a group of women clutching their small children. Another man nearby holds a sign, “we buy hair.” More and more girls and women are turning to the cut the make ends meet, and feed their families for a few days.

Women sell their locks to local wigmakers in Colombia for around $10-30, depending on length and quality.

Most looking for a better life end up selling candles or coffee at stoplights, and many become victims to greater evil.

Other women sell their bodies. Girls as young as 14 line the Cucuta streets available “for hire,” earning around seven dollars “per service.”

…

Both men and women are exposed to sex trafficking along the route from Venezuela to Colombia. According to several walkers, some women “chose” prostitution as a means to make money and earn rides along the way. And some heterosexual men “sell themselves on the gay market” for a little money.

So pick your poison — the horror of life in Colombia, or the ravages of socialism in Venezuela:

Inside Venezuela, health care has all but dissolved. Children are dying of malaria and hepatitis. They’re breaking bones and burning their bodies, having been left unattended while their parents comb the streets for work and food.

Suicide rates too have skyrocketed, even among children. Specific numbers are impossible to come by as the government refuses to track or release accurate data, yet Venezuelan children’s rights group CECODAP estimates there has been at least an 18 percent rise in teens taking their own lives over the past year. There are next to no mental health services.

Surely as per many fans of Ocasio-Cortez, Venezuela isn’t the “good kind of socialism.” They are correct — Venezuela was once South America’s richest country.

As explained by the World Economic Forum:

The heady days of 2001 – when Venezuela was the richest country on the continent – are long gone.

The economy shrank by 18.6% last year. In 2017, it’s 35% smaller than it was in 2013, at least in terms of GDP, and 40% lower in GDP-per-capita terms.

Inflation stood at an eye-watering 800% last year and there have been predictions it could reach 1,600% by the end of 2017.

The country’s currency, the bolivar, has been devalued to the extent that is basically worthless.

The official rate of exchange between the bolivar and the US dollar is roughly 10 bolivars to the dollar. But in reality it’s closer to 10,000.
Analysis has shown that, at the end of July, a dollar was worth approximately 10,389 bolivars – up from 8,000 just a week before.

And how did they get there?

Controls on foreign exchange and prices of basic goods have caused significant issues. So too have unrestrained public spending and the state siphoning from private industry.

Hmmm… That sounds like…socialism.

The party that claims to be about science has made a science of denial. For some across the aisle, that which feels good and sounds good has trumped that which works. Will they learn anything from Venezuela’s plight? Probably not; it’s not the good kind of socialism. And the drinking of the Kool-Aid — which is pee-flavored, incidentally — continues.

Relevant RedState links in this article: here, here, here, and here.

See 3 more pieces from me: Kung Fu Hillary, Hoebag, stinking.

Find all my RedState work here.

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