Socialism in Venezuela

Whenever I have a chance, I like to learn a little bit about the people I am interacting with.  These people will typically be bank tellers, grocery cashiers, or any random restaurant employee.  I love talking with people that have immigrated to America from other countries, and surprisingly I have met a lot of people from Ecuador which is neat because a friend of mine is married to an Ecuadorian.  I never knew there was such a large group of people from there until recently.

Today while at Sprint getting my Palm Pre exchanged for a new one (because of a dead pixel or maybe it was dust under the screen) I learned that my attendant was from Venezuela.  She (Vanessa) was a younger woman and has been in America for about 6 years.  I asked her what she thought of Hugo Chavez and immediately she had a scowl on her face and stated that he was crazy.  Digging in deeper I found out that her father sent her here and he came to America about 3 years ago.  Curious about their immigration to America I asked if the state had confiscated her father’s business and she told me the story about her family.

In Venezuela, Vanessa’s family lived in a house that had been passed on from generation to generation.  When her parents inherited it from her grandparents it was a small home.  Her father invested time and money and expanded the house and made improvements.  Right after paying off the house the Venezuelan government came in and told them that the house was too big for one family.  They were forced to sell the house so 4 families could live in it and the government was only going to pay them 10 cents on the dollar.  Her father owned a business and ultimately shut it down to move to America and start over again in hopes of a less parasitic government.

This type of activity is totally despicable in my opinion.  For a hard working, responsible family to have their property taken from them by the government is ridiculous.  What also horrifies me more is how Vanessa’s family is depicted as evil for being wealthy and responsible.  Even though they are the victims in this case the populous is blind to the governments malicious activities.

We are lucky in America that these things do not happen often and are not common occurrences.  The sad thing is that they do happen and all too often little is heard about it.  People are losing their houses to eminent domain for private projects like shopping malls all across the country.  I am a big proponent for freedom and liberty; however there are many enemies within our own state to those ideas.  Those enemies are people looking to wiretap your conversations without a warrant, people detaining prisoners without trials, and people propping up failed programs and philosophies like public education and the war on drugs just to name a few.

As citizens we must not let them take our freedoms and liberties no matter how insignificant.  Because when that happens it is like a snowball and day by day and year by year you lose more and more until you are in a country like Venezuela.  Once all has been confiscated by the government it will be you who is looking for a fresh start.