Battle4Liberty

I just returned from another trip to Asia. I always see some things firsthand when I’m there. I had two interesting encounters this time.

The first was at the national museum in Beijing. The modern history section tells the story from Mao to the present. The shift from Marxism to a mixed approach with some capitalism is officially presented as a natural evolution of socialism, not a departure from it. The term is they use frequently is market socialism, an oxymoron in a literal sense, but not from their perspective. As my Chinese colleague explained, socialism isn’t really about Marxism, but about income equality—nobody having more than anyone else. In other words, capitalism is fine as long as its abundance can be redistributed. In this sense, capitalism becomes the new socialism. This is a novel way of understanding the Chinese economy, but it also provides insight into the neo-socialists in the US. They are happy with capitalism to the extent that they can control most of its bounty through taxation, redistribution, and regulation.

The second encounter was with an engineer from Venezuela I met in the hotel lobby. I asked him how things were going there. He just shook is head and said, “It’s the government.” As he put it, “The government in Venezuela is just for the poor people, but it’s horrible for the professionals. They take everything the professionals and companies produce and give it to the poor, except for what they keep for themselves. Nobody who produces anything can make any money anymore. So many companies have shut down that there isn’t anything left to take from them. There’s no future.” I’ve covered the plight of Venezuela many times in my blog so there’s nothing new here, but it’s interesting to hear it firsthand from someone suffering through it.

Apparently Chavez and Maduro didn’t learn anything from the Chinese, who have figured out that some degree of free enterprise is necessary to generate the cash to finance government largesse. Of course, capitalism cannot coexist with income equality. Entrepreneurs take risks and work hard, and are only willing to do so if they get to keep what they earn. Income inequality comes with the territory. The Chinese, the Venezuelans, and the leftists in the US are all trying to figure out the same thing—how much wealth can confiscated before business leaders and other professionals quit producing.