More of Chavez’s Chicanery
Chavez goes even further in pulling the wool over the eyes of the Venezuelan voters. The Vandal of Venezuela, the Furious Fuhrer, and the Great Thief, steals from the rich, and unlike his supposed idol, Robin Hood, keeps what he steals to remain in power, not to help the poor (remember, if the Marxists were right, the North Koreans would be well fed, instead of starving and having to extort the world with nuclear weapons to feed their overgrown army). Chavez, to remain in power, has begun to harshly enforce the country’s price controls on food.  We have already pointed out how he has threatened to nationalize grocery stores if they do not comply with his edicts. Â
The problem is that that is a rather empty threat.  Either grocers comply with the price controls and face extended losses, so that their businesses become worthless or they break the laws and lose their businesses.  Either way, they lose their businesses.
So, some businesses will decide they may as well skirt the law. What does Chavez do? Increase the penalty. Throw the offending business owners and managers in jail.Â
What Chavez’s price-fixing edict reminds me of is one by another dictator, the Roman Emporer Diocletian.
In the year 302 A.D. the Roman emperor Diocletian “commanded that there should be cheapness.” His edict declared:
“Unprincipled greed appears wherever our armies, following the commands of the public weal, march, not only in villages and cities but also upon all highways, with the result that prices of foodstuffs mount not only fourfold and eightfold, but transcend all measure. Our law shall fix a measure and a limit to this greed.”
Why do you think Diocletian found food prices higher wherever he marched with his armies? What result would you anticipate from the command that “there should be cheapness?”
What result do you anticipate from Chavez’s edict that food prices stay low?
MC
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