Outflows

Every few months, I revisit a story that far too many in the main stream media ignore—Venezuela. There has never been (in my lifetime) a more extreme (and poignant) example of the utter and complete failure of the socialist model. Once wealthy Venezuela has now become a failed state—all in period of less than 20 years, and all because Leftists decided that their model would somehow result in a utopian existence where free stuff accrued to the poor and the rich were taxed and otherwise demonized so that the poor and middle class would be ascendant.

Anthony Faiola and Rachelle Krygier report on the latest events in this sad drama:

This collapsing socialist state is suffering one of the most dramatic outflows of human talent in modern history, with Aquiles Nazoa offering a glimpse into what happens when a nation begins to empty out. Vast gaps in Venezuela’s labor market are causing a breakdown in daily life, and robbing this nation of its future. The exodus is broad and deep — an outflow of doctors, engineers, oil workers, bus drivers and electricians.

And teachers.

So far this year, 48,000 teachers — or 12 percent of all staff at elementary and high schools nationwide — have quit, according to Se Educa, an educational nonprofit group. The vast majority, according to the group, have joined a stampede of Venezuelans leaving the country to escape food lines and empty grocery store shelves ...

During the first five months of the year, roughly 400,000 Venezuelans have fled the country, following 1.8 million who left over the last two years, according to the Central University of Venezuela. Yet even those numbers may not fully capture the scope of the exodus. Aid workers dealing with the crisis in bordering nations say an average of 4,600 Venezuelans a day have been leaving since Jan. 1 — putting the outflow during this year alone at nearly 700,000.

The Venezuelans are running from a nation broken by failed socialist policies, mismanagement, corruption and lower global oil prices — the country’s principal source of cash.

The trained hamsters in the main stream media are the first to ask politicians they don't like to condemn right wing groups when they promote "hate speech." That's fair. It is interesting, however, that they NEVER ask left-wing politicians (now a significant majority of all Dem politicians) to condemn the human catastrophe that is occurring in Venezuela, identify the reasons that it occurred, and ask how they can support proposals that would have been happily embraced by Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro. Every time Bernie or Liz open their mouths, that question should be asked and asked again.

Instead of achieving a workers' paradise, the Leftists in Venezuela destroyed a prosperous country. It's an object lesson that should not be ignored.

UPDATE (6/7/2018):
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As if the current situation in Venezuela isn't bad enough, Jim Wyss reports:

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
Venezuelans perceived their country to be the most dangerous place on the planet in 2017 — worse than war-torn nations, failed states and global trouble spots.

In its annual 2018 Global Law and Order Index, Gallup found that Venezuelans distrusted their police, felt unsafe walking at night and had been robbed or assaulted at an alarming rate compared to the rest of the world.

The country had a law and order score of 44 in Gallup’s survey, putting it dead last among 140 nations — behind Afghanistan, South Sudan, Gabon, Liberia and South Africa. It was the second year in a row that Venezuela anchored the global list, as the once-wealthy nation faces broad economic, political and social collapse.

What a triumph for the socialist model!