Venezuela’s Socialists Play Santa Claus

The latest from Venezuela, where socialism has just about completed its destruction of a once-prosperous country: the government has stolen four million toys to distribute them to poor children:

Venezuela’s socialist government has seized nearly 4 million toys from a private company and says it intends to hand them out as Christmas gifts to poor children this holiday season.

The country’s fair pricing authority seized the toys from three warehouses run by Kreisel, Venezuela’s largest toy distributor, on Friday. Two company executives were detained on suspicion of promoting price speculation.

“Promoting price speculation” is one of those wonderful socialist terms. I would have to ask Bernie Sanders to be sure, but I think it means charging enough for a product to cover the costs of production and distribution, plus a return on capital. And any country with a “fair pricing authority” is doomed.

[Fair pricing agency director William] Contreras said the seizure would teach companies “that you can’t play with the rights of Venezuelans.”

Authorities said local supply committees will be in charge of distributing the toys “fairly” to children.

I suppose that means the end of Venezuela’s toy industry. But why should toys be any different from oil, electricity, food and motor vehicles?

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