But this is how they always end when political Leftists who love big government are at the helm. And it's exactly what was foretold in the famous 1957 Ayn Rand novel, Atlas Shrugged.
In case you've never read it, Atlas Shrugged tells the story of what happens when hardworking, talented citizens are robbed of the fruits of their labor by government thugs who redistribute it to others in the name of "equality." Such a scenario is more popularly known as socialism – or in its worst iteration, total communism.
It all starts with heavy regulations that make it difficult for people to do business. The government grows larger as the private sector shrinks, and those who once owned successful businesses are forced to cease or flee for greener pastures.
This is exactly what's currently taking place in Venezuela, where, despite having rich oil reserves and other natural resources, the general populace is being denied access to its bounty. As a result, those who otherwise would have contributed to a thriving Venezuelan economy were it a free market, are leaving the country in droves, plunging the nation into total poverty and chaos.
"Reports are now surfacing that there is an outflow of teachers, doctors, engineers, oil workers, bus drivers, and electricians," writes Marina Medvin for TownHall.com, citing information she gathered from an article published by The Washington Post.
"The brightest Venezuelans are disappearing. Venezuelans shrugged," she adds, citing the exact scenario as predicted more than half a century ago in Atlas Shrugged.
That socialism ALWAYS ends in failure isn't rocket science – it's common sense
Medvin also points out that Rand's predictions, if you will, weren't some premonition or fortunetelling endeavor. They were based in economic principles derived from logic, which dictates that preventing producers from producing results in economic disaster.
For Venezuela, it's meant exponential poverty, crime and the death of opportunity. Naturally, those with ambition who are stuck in this dead-end scenario will make every effort to go somewhere else – and that's exactly what they're now doing.
"Rand understood incentivization and human nature," Medvin explains. "Rand simply brought these two components to their natural conclusion in a world of socialism. Venezuela proved that Rand's understanding of human nature and incentivization was correct. Atlas Shrugged was an accurate prediction of human response to socialism."
While Venezuela's current plight may not be permanent, its ramifications are going to be felt into perpetuity. At the same time, "outside actors," as one media outlet describes them, are already starting to intervene to restore some semblance of freedom to the South American country.
Political players from the United States, Russia and even China have begun engaging in talks about a "future ... global order," which is creepily reminiscent of the one-world government talked about in religious texts like the Holy Bible.
But it's going to take some time, reports indicate, for better or for worse. In the meantime, Venezuelans who hope for an actual future will continue to leave their native country in droves, solidifying in their wake yet another case-in-point as to the utter detriment of embracing socialism.
"With an entire generation of Venezuelans decimated by lack of schooling, malnutrition and untreated diseases once thought of as a thing of the past and a sizeable [sic] number of recent refugees unlikely to return, recovery to anything resembling pre-crisis levels is likely to take more than a decade," writes Oliver Stuenkel for America's Quarterly.
Read Collapse.news for more coverage of collapsing states like Venezuela.
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