Hugo Chavez has taken it one step further:
President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that his administration plans to
create "collective property" as part of sweeping reforms toward
socialism, and that officials would move to seize control of large
ranches and redistribute lands deemed "idle."
The Venezuelan leader, speaking on his television and radio program
"Hello President," said the government was "advancing quickly" with a
concept of "social, or collective, property" to be included in
forthcoming constitutional reforms.
"It's property that belongs to everyone and it's going to benefit
everyone," said Chavez, who vowed to undermine capitalism's continued
influence in Venezuela.
I wonder if everyone will be allowed into the presidential residency and if Chavez will confiscate his own property and make it collectively-owned.
The following is unsurprising given that Chavez is, in essence, squelching Venezuealans' incentives to provide for one another:
"If Mr. Chavez really wants to help Venezuela's poor farmers, he must
offer them technical assistance and sufficient financing because land
doesn't become productive without investment," said opposition leader
Alfonzo Marquina. "We're only seeing increasing shortages and more
expensive products."
This will do little good if farmers' produce is collective property. Forced altruism (nor collective agriculture) does not work well.
And lest we think things will change democratically:
The leftist leader also plans to slap new luxury taxes on the wealthy
and do away with presidential term limits that would otherwise bar him
from running again in 2012.
Kip has more here.