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Economists use beer as measure to document failures of socialism in new book
Fox News ^ | 8/4/19 | Hollie McKay

Posted on 08/04/2019 1:11:46 PM PDT by Impala64ssa

With the hot-button word “socialism” sparking intense political debate as Americans brace for the 2020 presidential election, two U.S. economists have completed a global drinking tour – and a book already at the top of Amazon's "beer" category – warning that the socialist lure could lead to a drastic dry-up of the country’s adult beverages. “Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World,” by Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell, is billed as a “worldwide tour guide written in plain English” which takes readers on a not-so-luxurious expedition into three countries that have embraced socialism – North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba – using beer as an indicator of economic concern. “In Cuba, there were only two types of beer, almost the same in alcohol content and both tasted like skunky Budweiser. In North Korea, it was just god awful,” Lawson, who is also the director of the William J. O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom at Southern Methodist University, told Fox News. “And, in Venezuela, the country has basically run out of beer because the government planners couldn’t import enough barley.” In Lawson’s summation, why would employees of a government-controlled plant bother to go out of their way to seek out the resources, extra cost and energy to produce 30 different types of beer or wine when it is easy to make two, and there is no incentive otherwise to excel? “We were on the border of Colombia and Venezuela, and the Colombian side was awash with all kinds of beer.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: nkorea; socialismsucks; venezueka
I've always likened the touting of socialism to those same old sleazy get rich quick scams. Like buying real estate with no $$$ down. Making a killing in stock regardless of market conditions. Investing thousands in the latest snake oil while building a downline or some other unworkable pyramid racket. They'll tell you other systems failed because they were implemented wrong but THEY have a PROVEN SYSTEM that works. Those 4 deadly words, THIS TIME IT'S DIFFERENT! And like the red diaper doper babies and hippies before them so many millenials fall for this crap like so many brainwashed little puppies.
1 posted on 08/04/2019 1:11:46 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
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To: Impala64ssa

Wasn’t this method of analysis used before [fairly recently]?


2 posted on 08/04/2019 1:13:35 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Impala64ssa

Little puppies are far smarter than red diaper doper babies and hippies.


3 posted on 08/04/2019 1:14:38 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: Impala64ssa
"THIS TIME IT'S DIFFERENT!"

LOL

One of Howie Carr's favorite sayings:

"You can trust me. I'm not like the Others."

4 posted on 08/04/2019 1:15:26 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Impala64ssa

I was at university in the 60s. I remember one professor stating that the Soviet system was superior. “Look at toothpaste in the grocery store. Dozens of brands in several sizes. In the Soviet system there is only one brand and one size. Much more efficient”. Choice and freedom are bad he was basically saying.


5 posted on 08/04/2019 1:22:56 PM PDT by hanamizu
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To: carriage_hill
Little puppies are far smarter than red diaper doper babies and hippies.
When it comes to Breadlines Bernie Sanders, you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
6 posted on 08/04/2019 1:26:26 PM PDT by Impala64ssa (Virtue signalling is no virtue)
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To: Impala64ssa

Not just Beer, pretty much everything.

The East German Trabant was a good example. It was a 2-stroke 3 cylinder engine. Mixed Gas & Oil like your LawnBoy mower. The body wasn’t metal, but a form of compressed wool and cardboard. Total POS.

It gets better. You couldn’t just go out and buy one, crappy as it was. No Sir. You had to get on The List, for permission. It took a while. Such a “while”, it was traditional to sign up a baby when born.

So one Fine Day, the word came down - “You Can Buy This POS Comrade!”

Payment was due in full (or immediately lose your spot in line) so it was also traditional to borrow from family members.


7 posted on 08/04/2019 1:31:45 PM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: Impala64ssa

“When it comes to Breadlines Bernie Sanders, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. “

You misspelled “ticks”...


8 posted on 08/04/2019 1:33:27 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Impala64ssa
.... both tasted like skunky Budweiser.

Is there any other kind?

9 posted on 08/04/2019 1:45:51 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Freedom4US

A Russian ordered a Trabant and the official said it would 9 years to the day when it would be ready for pick up.

The Russian asked, “Morning or afternoon”?

The official replied, “9 years from now what does it matter”?

Russian, “because the plumber is coming in the morning”.

Ronald Reagan joke.


10 posted on 08/04/2019 1:58:24 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: Freedom4US

There will be no beer in AOC’s green “paradise”.

Why?

Because those little bubbles in beer are CO2, the EVIL gas. Since making beer involves making CO2, breweries are EVIL!

THEREFORE, drinking of beer is forbidden in AOC’s “paradise”...


11 posted on 08/04/2019 2:00:20 PM PDT by pfony1 (Put Up or Shut Up!)
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To: Freedom4US

The one and only time I saw a Trabant was at a car show in The Bronx. The owner got it through customs on the condition that it NEVER be registered and licensed, Even though other imported cars over 25 yrs old are exempt from safety and emissions regs Trabants are such dangerous sh*tboxes that no state would allow it to be legally driven, even as an antique. The wonders of socialism. Jay Leno has a Soviet built limo,used by a high ranking Russian officials in his collection from The 1980’s. The engine is a knockoff of the 312 cu in Ford V8 used in the first T Birds in 1955. A good engine, but shows how technologically “advanced” the socialists really are.


12 posted on 08/04/2019 2:09:39 PM PDT by Impala64ssa (Virtue signalling is no virtue)
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To: pfony1

Sir, it’s not just the CO2 that is the problems, that’s just a SYMPTOM.

Millions of sentient life forms - Yeast - are cruelly forced to turn barley and malt into alcohol too. This is inhumane and must be stopped. A particularly vicious practice is called “Lagering” - forced to work, often in caves, at very cold temperatures.


13 posted on 08/04/2019 2:10:39 PM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: Paladin2
😀😀
14 posted on 08/04/2019 2:11:10 PM PDT by Impala64ssa (Virtue signalling is no virtue)
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To: Impala64ssa

I had always thought that Soviet limos were equipped with Daimler-Benz engines because reliable.


15 posted on 08/04/2019 2:12:56 PM PDT by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam.")
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To: Impala64ssa

Yeah, they were junk. One of the guys in my unit bought one “over there” and somehow he fixed it up well enough and he got it to pass inspection. Surprisingly enough. He drove it all over, this was in the 1990s. When East Germany fell, so many of those things were left abandoned on the side of the road it was a big problem for the former West Germany.


16 posted on 08/04/2019 2:18:08 PM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: Impala64ssa

Forget the “Democratic Socialist” crap; he’s a thru-and-thru commie.


17 posted on 08/04/2019 2:18:56 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: Paladin2; Impala64ssa

My Macro/Micro Economics Professor always explained economics in terms of “beer & pizza”

It all made sense.


18 posted on 08/04/2019 2:57:55 PM PDT by Sasparilla ( I'm Not Tired of Winning)
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To: Sasparilla

“beer & pizza”

We often did that after class while in an MBA Program...

Sometimes beer during a break at the bar downstairs...


19 posted on 08/04/2019 3:03:44 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: hanamizu
I was at university in the 60s. I remember one professor stating that the Soviet system was superior. “Look at toothpaste in the grocery store. Dozens of brands in several sizes. In the Soviet system there is only one brand and one size. Much more efficient”. Choice and freedom are bad he was basically saying.
Much more efficient cheaper.

The central point about socialism is that socialists have no vision for improvement, only for cheapness. They promise lower cost, or free. They deliver cheap - as in, shoddy. In quality and in schedule. What good is cheap, when there is nothing in stock?

In Search of Excellence:
Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies
by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H., Jr. Waterman
makes one salient point that I keep coming back to. If you aren’t trying to improve, you aren’t staying the same. You are getting worse. And socialism is about disconnecting the value of quality to the customer from the cost of production.

20 posted on 08/04/2019 6:23:44 PM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (Socialism is cynicism directed towards society and - correspondingly - naivete towards government.)
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