Hugo Chavez proclaimed Dec. 6, 1998, when he was elected president of Venezuela, “Venezuela’s resurrection is under way and nothing and nobody can stop it.” At the time Venezuela had one of the best economies and highest per capita incomes in Latin America. The lure of socialism, where the government controls and distributes most everything, overwhelmed the country.

Twenty years later three million people have fled from Chavez’s “new and improved” socialism and his people are starving. Public latrines are overflowing with urine, escalators do not work, public water systems and street lighting are not reliable and citizens eat from the public refuge. Today nearly 90 percent live in poverty, and hyperinflation is nearing a million percent. The once oil-rich country now has the appearance of being war-torn. Socialism destroyed Venezuela.

The lure of socialism, something for nothing, first necessitates villainization of those who have. Those who produce become the “public enemy” class. Once this is accomplished the public, whose numbers are always the majority and poor, support the asset confiscation of those who have and produce—this usually by confiscatory taxes or outright governmental takeover.

The prosperity class is the group that risks capital loss to fund experimentation that produces businesses that result in jobs for the masses. When has a poor man created employment for others? Yes they are profit-motivated, which sometimes makes the investor more prosperous. That is the carrot that elevates society. But should they miscalculate they are the most hurt. When government makes prosperity unlikely through confiscatory taxes they quit investing. Government is inefficient by its nature. There exists no individual penalty for their mistakes once they are in power. Socialism destroys the creative investment class.

Chavez was right: “nothing and nobody can stop it.” Once the productive class is destroyed it is all down hill. Fuera Maduro, the new president, could only offer more of the same socialist remedies that have never worked where socialism has been entrenched.

Beware of politicians who wish to do “good” with someone else’s money. They are abundant in both major political parties but have overwhelmed the Democratic Party, more especially the freshman class led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and will destroy liberty for us too. Here is why.

Under socialism vote power favors those who want things for free: food, welfare, housing, healthcare — even free college, as they in time become the majority. This process is accelerated, and corrupted, when politicians link government gift giving with being elected. This has happened in America too.

As the poor, as a class, always tends to favor government intervention and thus financial favors from government to their benefit, and since all government money comes from the middle and upper classes through ever increasing taxes, (presently 47 percent of the adult population pay no federal income tax and a good share of these make up the non-productive class) they eventually destroy the productive base of society as government takes over more of the economy by confiscation or regulation. The overriding principle is, the more socialism the higher the taxes and burden on the producing class.

Those who feed off the labor of others need to know what they are doing to a country by pushing for the “freebies.”

Ultimately voters learn that they can purchase members of Congress who will take from those who have and give it to them. Legalized plunder. As those who have are disincentivized to invest further, the poor class grows as does their cry for even more from those who have, thus the managerial and funding class are extinguished. The middle class is now seen as those who have and are next to be extinguished by the increasing strength of the poor class until all remaining are poor. This is Venenzuala now and the United States too soon if it does not change direction.

This is Economics 101 but many freshmen Democrat Congressmen appear oblivious to this. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s advocacy of a 70 percent income tax on Americans would escalate our economic demise.

Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist. He taught history and political science from this perspective for more than 30 years at Taft College. To read more, visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.