Feeling overweight? Try the Socialism Diet

By Kirk D.

A recent survey (ENCOVI 2016) conducted in Venezuela found that a staggering 81% of “Venezuelan households are now living in income poverty;” a figure that has risen nearly five percent since 2015. It’s no surprise that Venezuelans are starving, but the ENCOVI survey also found that the average Venezuelan has lost an average of about 19 pounds; many eating two or less meals per day. Venezuela was never known for its obesity problem but many people there don’t really have an extra 19 pounds to lose. For some, poverty has gotten so bad that food truck robberies are becoming frequent and even zoo animals are being butchered and eaten.

In 1998, with the election of Hugo Chavez, Venezuela decided to give socialism a try. What could go wrong? And now, nearly two decades later Venezuela is on the verge of collapse. The Venezuelan currency hit an all time low when government realized it didn’t have enough money to pay for its own money. Last year President Maduro decided to scrap the country’s most used currency bill, but when citizens scrambled to get to banks to exchange their soon-to-be unusable bills, the new denominations never arrived, causing further looting and riots. Maduro then said that the old 100-bolivar bills can be used until February 2017, but confidence is low considering ongoing chaos the country has faced in recent years.

But I don’t know what’s more frightening, the fact that socialism can and usually does cause such disparities or that such a large number of Americans, millennials in particular, are showing more affinity for it by the day. But one New York Times survey from 2010 found that 16% of millennials can even properly define what socialism is, nor do they understand any of its basic tenants. Essentially, they have no idea what they’re talking about but they know they want free stuff. My guess is that if another survey was taken this year that percentage would go down even lower. For now it appears that our only hope for survival as a nation rests on Generation Z, as millennials have proven themselves to be generally drunk behind the social wheel. So ‘help us Generation Z; you’re our only hope.’

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