Venezuelan Migrant Has a Message for Socialists in America

It's easy to talk about the United States, right? About socialism, being in the United States. No, go live in socialism. I assure you that those people who say that don't know the reality of socialism. The reality of socialism is this. Do you have a message for the people here? There are people right now in the United States who support socialism. Do you have a message for them? They shouldn't be in the United States. Simply. If they support socialism and want to be in the United States, they shouldn't be there. Because it's better for them to be in socialist countries so they can see. It's easy to talk about the United States, right? About socialism, being in the United States. No, go live in socialism. I assure you that those people who say that don't know the reality of socialism. The reality of socialism is this. People of the middle class. And the upper middle class. The lower middle class doesn't leave because they don't have the conditions. Because for them to get here, these people had to sell a house, had to sell a car. It's a matter of life and death. And to leave your whole life in a backpack. To spend your whole life in a backpack. Now all that promise is gone. The country is a failed state. A hollowed out shell of its former self. Services like power and water are sporadic. The most basic consumer goods, from bread to toilet paper, are in chronically short supply. Crime has skyrocketed. Freedom of the press is almost non-existent. Democracy has been replaced by a virtual dictatorship. The country is, I'm sorry to say, my beloved Venezuela. A place in which my family has deep roots. I can tell you what happened to it in one word. Socialism. In 1999, then candidate for president, Hugo Chavez, promised to lead the people of Venezuela to a socialist paradise. His theme was Esperanza y Cambio, hope and change. Venezuela is a nation of great wealth, Chavez said, but it's being stolen from its citizens by the evil capitalists and evil corporations. This wrong would be righted, he assured the voters, if they elected him. And they did. To their everlasting regret. Chavez drew inspiration from his mentor, Fidel Castro. Like his mentor, he enjoyed giving speeches that sometimes lasted as many as seven hours. He even gave himself his own weekly television show, where he would spontaneously break into song. Here's a rule. When your nation's leader starts singing on national television, you're in trouble. Under Chavez, the government of Venezuela took over industry after industry. The government, he assured everyone, would run these businesses better than private enterprise. And the profits would be shared by the people. With great fanfare, he tore up contracts with multinational oil and gas companies and demanded that they pay much higher royalties. When they refused, he told them to leave. They did. His image was burnished by Hollywood celebrities who flocked to see the great work he was doing, taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor. Progressive politicians from the U.S. and Europe also praised him, lavishly. Here's another rule. When Hollywood celebrities visit your country to praise your leader, you're in trouble. When the leader sings on national television and is praised by Hollywood celebrities, you're doomed. Socialism always works in the beginning, so people are fooled in the beginning. It's easy for governments to confiscate money, but eventually, there's no more money to confiscate. In the case of Venezuela, I mean that literally. People who could get money out of the country did. Many left the country altogether. Nearly 2 million, according to Venezuelan sociologist Tomas Paez. The wealth creators continued to create wealth, but they created it somewhere else, Miami or Madrid, and other places around the world. When Chavez first ran for president in 1999, he said he would leave in two years if people weren't happy with him. But, like Castro, Chavez never had any intention of giving up power. He died in office in 2013, replaced by his vice president, Nicolás Maduro. Maduro is Chavez without the charisma or the voice. The country is now a pariah, shunned by the world and isolated. It's so bad that many international airlines refuse to fly there. People stand in lines for hours just to get food. Sometimes they walk away empty-handed. A recent survey found that 75% of Venezuelan adults lost weight in 2016, an average of 19 pounds. This national weight loss program is known cynically as the Maduro Diet. Still, Maduro holds onto power. Opposition leaders and journalists who report the truth are jailed. Venezuela is a cautionary tale. Once a country goes down a socialist path, there's no easy way back. And the longer a country stays socialist, the harder it is to reform it. Venezuela has been socialist for two decades. If you don't think it can happen here, whether here is the United States, or Europe, or anywhere else, you're fooling yourself. When people get used to depending on the government, no matter how poor they remain, that dependency is hard to break. That's why you should never buy the socialist lie. Socialism is a drug. And like a drug, it feels great at first, but eventually it will ruin your country, just like it ruined Venezuela. I'm Debbie D'Souza for Prager University.