Economists use beer as measure to document failures of socialism in new book

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/beer-measure-socialism-failures-new-book

With the hot-button word “socialism” sparking intense political debate as
Americans brace for the 2020 presidential election, two U.S. economists
have completed a global drinking tour – and a book already at the top of
Amazon's "beer" category – warning that the socialist lure could lead to a
drastic dry-up of the country’s adult beverages.

“Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree
World,” by Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell, is billed as a “worldwide
tour guide written in plain English” which takes readers on a not-so-
luxurious expedition into three countries that have embraced socialism –
North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba – using beer as an indicator of economic
concern.

“In Cuba, there were only two types of beer, almost the same in alcohol
content and both tasted like skunky Budweiser. In North Korea, it was just
god awful,” Lawson, who is also the director of the William J. O’Neil
Center for Global Markets and Freedom at Southern Methodist University,
told Fox News. “And, in Venezuela, the country has basically run out of
beer because the government planners couldn’t import enough barley.”

In Lawson’s summation, why would employees of a government-controlled
plant bother to go out of their way to seek out the resources, extra cost
and energy to produce 30 different types of beer or wine when it is easy
to make two, and there is no incentive otherwise to excel?

“We were on the border of Colombia and Venezuela, and the Colombian side
was awash with all kinds of beer. On the other side, Venezuela had nothing
for sale and people had to cross into Colombia just to get the basic
necessities,” said Powell, who is also the director of the Free Market
Institute and a professor of economics at Texas Tech University. “It’s an
important lesson for ‘Democratic Socialists’ in the U.S. to remember that
(Hugo) Chavez came to power in free and fair elections, but socialism
centralizes economic power and the system starts nationalizing farms,
factories, even hotels. When oil prices were $100 a barrel, Venezuela
could mask the dysfunction, but as oil prices went down over the last five
years, they couldn’t hide the reality.”

Subsequently, the authors contended, socialism often has opened the
floodgates to totalitarianism – as was the case this year in Caracas when
Nicolás Maduro was re-elected via a “sham” contest of political oppression
and refused to concede to the U.S-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

The book, which is slated to hit shelves Tuesday in the hours before the
second round of debates among the 2020 Democrats, was born out of the 2016
presidential campaign after the authors took issue with candidate Bernie
Sanders using the label to “attract people to the cause.” In their view,
he and other pro-socialist leaders have been spreading misinformation.

“We wanted to clear up what the definition of socialism really is;
(Sanders) points to Denmark, Sweden, Norway. While they aren’t free market
and have high taxes, they are market-orientated and aren’t real socialist
countries,” Lawson conjectured. “And, China is fake socialism, it has made
a lot of reform when it comes to personal property rights. It’s crony
capitalism, but that is a hell of a lot better than socialism.”

Nonetheless, Lawson also observed that even in a country like Sweden –
often cited as a shining example of socialism – beer is widely available,
but the cost is typically very high.

However, it is not all doom and gloom.

The authors also took their boozing into former Soviet Union countries to
document their “progress” since they parted ways with such an economic
model in recent decades.

“Our last trip was to the country of Georgia, and basically that was a
socialist as it gets. But, it is now one of the highest countries in
economic freedom,” quipped Powell. “And, using alcohol as our economic
measure – when Georgia was under the USSR and their wine industry was
under Soviet control, it was a disaster. Now, it’s a wine mecca, produces
really unique wines that don’t exist anywhere else in the world, and it's
where wine snobs from across the globe now go to taste.”

Thus, their fundamental message is strikingly unimpaired.

“Socialism is a disaster everywhere it has been tried, historical evidence
illustrates this,” added Lawson. “The freer the country is, the more it
prospers.”



--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.

Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.

The Obama-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
approved Uranium One in fall 2010. With a little luck, we'll see
compulsive liar Hillary Clinton in jail before she dies.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.

Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.

[Byker]

"Leroy N. Soetoro" wrote in message
news:lnsAAB6703A0D...@202.81.252.44...

>
> https://www.foxnews.com/politics/beer-measure-socialism-failures-new-book
>
> With the hot-button word “socialism” sparking intense political debate as
> Americans brace for the 2020 presidential election, two U.S. economists
> have completed a global drinking tour – and a book already at the top of
> Amazon's "beer" category – warning that the socialist lure could lead to a
> drastic dry-up of the country’s adult beverages.

Where else but in Russia would 1,400 people be trampled to death in
a rush for free beer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khodynka_Tragedy

[Joe]

Almost anywhere, I'd have said.

--
Joe