The other day I heard a right wing publicist attack the socialist system in Venezuela because "Venezuelans cannot get shoes." I agree that any system thar cannot get shoes on the feet of its people is seriously flawed, but for most of its history Venezuela had a capitalist economic system and are people in Venezuela could not get shoes then either.
If there is a problem in Venezuela it may be corruption, so often an outcome when a resource-rich nation lets technical entrepreneurs begin to exploit the resources before political maturity has had a chance to develop.
In rather less politically charged but equally imbecilic commentary, I noted that reporting on the most recent (December) economic statistics presented a 3% gain in average hourly wages over the year 2018 as something that American workers should feel happy about. Perhaps they do, but they might keep in mind that that the capitalist class would consider any investment that returns only 3% annually as contemptible.
The American system delivers shoes for everybody although almost all of them are flimsy anduncomfortable even when the price tags are high.
This was not always so. America was a large manufacturer of shoes. Up until about 1970 you could get well-constructed, long-wearing, comfortable shoes. They were not as cheap relative to real income as the Chinese and Brazilian footwear we are forced to wear today, but they were better bargains for most people
It is possible to get a pair of well-made American-made shoes but they'll cost you a day's pay. If you want them to be stylish as well, make that two days' pay,
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