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Steve Gardes

The Socialism Instruction Manual

For political leaders to convince a nation to adapt Socialism (for power and money) you must not be in a rush, and slowly break down the existing economic/political system. You then must offer the citizenry, especially the young, a social utopia with political empowerment. Venezuela is the perfect model to follow. During the 1950’s – 1980”s massive oil reserves made Venezuela the fourth-richest country in the world. Today Venezuela is one of the poorest countries, and rampant inflation has made its currency practically worthless. It might be worth America’s time to study the events that allowed Socialism to bankrupt this once strong country—especially since Cuban, Venezuelan, and Chinese refugees in America today are watching in shock the same slow motion horror film below that they have seen before;
· In 2000 Hugo Chavez came into power with socialist promises of hope, change and utopia.
· Changes took place slowly as Chavez used the countries oil revenues to take over Venezuelan industries and develop massive government funded social programs around health care, education, transportation, and food subsidies. A new normal took place as everyone went on with their daily lives.
· Government conflicts with religions and Churches began to develop (as God must be removed to control man).
· Venezuela began to experience an influx of illegal immigrants in search of a better quality of life; the country’s public services soon began to collapse.
· As people started losing their jobs in the oil industry and other major industries, many citizens started leaving the country. However, their neighbors kept on saying “what happened in Cuba cannot possibly happen here.”
· As oil prices began to fluctuate Chavez resorted to price controls, exchange rate controls, and private property confiscation in a failed attempt to dictate prosperity.
· Chavez replaced the existing police force with military police.
· Chaos soon set in as economic instability turned into rampant crime with theft, kidnappings, and killings.
· Today everything is rationed, from food, water to toilet paper. Government controls are everywhere.

Does any of this sound familiar?
Socialism is based on the premise that government control is necessary to facilitate individual prosperity. Controls are placed first on economic policies— then when there is no “common good” reaching the citizenry as the economy begins to shut down, controls are then placed on free speech—culminating with forceful dictates on the citizenry as they are not doing their part for the “common good.” A “Robin Hood” form of government is always the result, until the workers and rich lose their incentive to work anymore—at which time you reach equality and utopia where all citizens pretend to work, and the government pretends to pay the citizens.

Steve Gardes is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) with over 40 years of public accounting experience.

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