Think of an item you use on the daily. Toilet paper, electricity, medicine…

Okay, now pretend you don’t have it. That’s Venezuela right now as their economic crisis escalates into the stratosphere. They are running out of everything, and this includes businesses and corporations that make much of the things they use.

This has caused hours long waits for simple things from stores, such as butter. Oftentimes these items are then turned around to be sold on the black market. That’s right, there’s a black market in Venezuela right now for things you complain for having to drive 5 minutes to the store for.

On top of that, Venezuela is short around 80% of the medical supplies necessary to treat its population. People are currently dying because they can’t get something as simple as a syringe. According to hospitals, they are bone dry in terms of supplies.

Even corporations like Coca Cola, and airline companies, are refusing to do business any further within the country due to the shortages of everything needed to operate.

This is the effects of a socialist government. One currently being championed by the left, especially in the form of its head cheerleader, Bernie Sanders.

You’ll recall that even Sanders refused to speak in detail about Venezuela, as he ran away from the question of Venezuela when it was asked of him during an interview with Univision. He did that – as I’ve explained before – because this is the end result of socialist policies.

As Vox.com reports…

“To take one example out of a million possibilities, it is now illegal for a dairy company to move raw milk from a collection center it owns to a processing facility it also owns 2 kilometers away without an explicit permit signed and stamped by a slew of government officials.

It is also illegal to fire a worker for basically any reason, including making threats of physical violence against a manager. And, needless to say, it is illegal to set your own prices: The state does that, often setting them below the cost of production, especially for basic goods. Under such circumstances, even “private” firms are in essence state run.

The Venezuelan economy today is a kind of caricature of US Republicans’ worst nightmares. The difference is that for us, it’s not just empty rhetoric: We actually do have a government that’s fanatically hostile to private enterprise and convinced that business poses an existential threat to it.”

If you’re still looking to support someone like Bernie Sanders, and the socialist policies he espouses, then this is the end result. We don’t have to make this mistake to learn from it, Venezuela already did it for us.

Yay capitalism.