{"id":2017,"date":"2008-01-25T05:14:25","date_gmt":"2008-01-25T10:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2017"},"modified":"2008-01-24T15:15:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-24T20:15:00","slug":"shapes-of-things-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2017","title":{"rendered":"Shapes Of Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simple Fact:\u00a0 None of the great famines of the last 100 years – Ukraine in the ’30s, Bengal in the ’40s, China at various times but focuses\u00a0in the ’50s, India and Bangladesh in the ’60’s, Sub-saharan Africa in the ’70s, Ethiopia in the ’80s – was caused by a lack of food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

None.\u00a0 Zero.\u00a0 Every last one of the above was caused by government action.<\/p>\n

A further simple fact:\u00a0 no place with a free market and <\/em>a free press has ever suffered a famine.\u00a0 Every one of the famines above were caused by governments that had dictatorial powers, either structurally (most of them) or due to exigent circumstances (British-controlled Bengal in the early forties, in which the government assumed wartime powers over distribution and the press).\u00a0<\/p>\n

In every case above, but for government intervention (usually hostile, as in the case of the USSR, China and Ethiopia, but sometimes “well-meaning”, as with the spectacular, grisly failure of India’s foray into big-state socialism), the means – food! – existed to solve the famine.<\/p>\n

Of course, it’s misleading to compare the Ukranian Famine of the ’30s – which was induced by Stalin’s Cheka\/NKVD <\/em>to force the collectivization of Ukrainian farmland – with India, whose hamfisted attempts at creating an industrial powerhouse by second-world means was such an incredible human catastrophe.\u00a0 Isn’t it?<\/p>\n

Well, not if you’re starving.<\/p>\n

All of that is just backgrond for this story; Hugo Chavez is sending the army to confiscate food from Venezuela’s food merchants<\/a>, to “alleviate shortages”:<\/p>\n

Venezuela’s top food company has accused troops of illegally seizing more than 500 tonnes of food from its trucks as part of President Hugo Chavez’s campaign to stem shortages.<\/p>\n

The leftist Chavez this week created a state food distributor and loosened some price controls, seeking to end months of shortages for staples like milk and eggs that have caused long lines and upset his supporters in the OPEC nation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Price controls?\u00a0 State distribution?<\/p>\n

Yeah, goodness knows that’s worked so well every time it’s been tried.<\/p>\n

Simple economic fact:\u00a0 You can not make something worth other than what people are willing to pay for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Artificially lower the price?\u00a0 Expect shortages; people will gladly pay $1 for $2 worth of product!\u00a0 Expect the black market to try to make up for the shortages; expect massive amounts of the artificially-cheap product to find their way to <\/em>the black market.<\/p>\n

Artificially raise the price?\u00a0 Expect the black market to fill the demand for cheaper.<\/p>\n

Did someone say “black market?”<\/p>\n

The highly publicised campaign has also included government crackdowns on accused smuggling, with the military seizing 1,600 tonnes of food and sending 1,200 troops to the border with Colombia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Using the military to crack down on the black market caused by government-induced shortages?<\/p>\n

Why, it’s like a “war on drugs”, only with food!<\/p>\n

Jose Anzola, a director of food company Alimentos Polar, told reporters that troops stopped 27 of its trucks over the last three days and described the seizures as “illegal, arbitrary and irresponsible.”<\/p>\n

Troops said they halted the transport of 350 tonnes of food to states along the Colombian border on suspicion of smuggling, he said. Another 165 tonnes were impounded in an eastern state on accusations of hoarding, he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, he’s sending the military to undo peoples’ responses to the shortages his own government is causing.<\/p>\n

Business leaders say shortages of these products are caused by strict price controls, which have lagged inflation that is Latin America’s highest.<\/p>\n

Chavez is focusing on practical issues like food supply and crime after losing a December referendum that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely and expand his self-styled revolution.<\/p>\n

He announced an increase of more than 30% in the retail price of milk in an effort to ease shortages that have created headaches for consumers of all social classes.<\/p>\n

He also threatened to expropriate companies selling food above regulated prices.<\/p>\n

“Anyone who is distributing food … and is speculating, we must intervene and we must expropriate (the business) and put it in the hands of the state and the communities,” Chavez said during the inauguration of a new state-run market in Caracas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s see how well that works.<\/p>\n

Any bets?<\/p>\n

BONUS QUESTION:\u00a0 What do you suppose happens when Hillary, Obie or Silkypony does the same exact thing to healthcare in the US?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simple Fact:\u00a0 None of the great famines of the last 100 years – Ukraine in the ’30s, Bengal in the ’40s, China at various times but focuses\u00a0in the ’50s, India and Bangladesh in the ’60’s, Sub-saharan Africa in the ’70s, Ethiopia in the ’80s – was caused by a lack of food.\u00a0 None.\u00a0 Zero.\u00a0 Every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-war","category-money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}