In the 1970s and 1980s, Venezuela overall enjoyed a flourishing economy and democracy. Increasingly, it has become the opposite in the last three decades.

It is simplistic to dismiss this deterioration as the result of socialism, although a convenient delusion of President Donald Trump and his partisans for their propaganda against Democrats.

Scandinavian countries are socialist in various ways and degrees, yet thriving democracies. They rank higher than the U.S. in many measures of quality of life such as infant mortality, life expectancy, health care, educational performance and happiness.

The underlying cause for the terrible deterioration of Venezuela is by far incompetence, greed and corruption at the top levels of the government. Sound familiar?

Of course, such deterioration could never happen in the U.S. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, no one imagined it could ever happen in Venezuela.

Stay tuned. The U.S. may be deteriorating too.

Leslie E. Sponsel

Hawaii Kai

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