Latin America and Socialist Suicide

I wrote a few days ago about Latin America’s “pink tide” and how statist policies are driving away jobs and investment.

Today, let’s look at John Stossel’s interview with Gloria Alvarez about the grim future of the region.

I especially like the part about 9:00 and 21:00 when she talks about the failure of supposed right-wing governments that continue with socialism – or even make it worse (we have the same problem in the United States).

But the best part of the 25-minute video, in my humble opinion, is her explanation of why statism is seductive and liberty is not.

She uses an iceberg analogy. With socialism, people see good things above the surface but are blind to the horrible consequences beneath the water.

By comparison, the libertarian iceberg is superficially less appealing.

The small part above the water seems cold and heartless. All the good stuff is hidden underneath.

In some sense, these two images are a different way of showing what’s captured in this cartoon.

Needless to say, there’s a big difference between superficial and real. In the video, Ms. Alvarez cites Margaret Thatcher’s famous observation about the inevitable problem with socialism.