In 2014 Venezuela's inflation rate was 64%. No connection to socialist policies at all.

Socialists keep trying socialism.  And the results are uniformly awful.

I've written a lot about the disaster that is socialist Venezuela here, here and here.  Now the latest lesson in Venezuela--a nation that went socialist under the dictatorship of the late Hugo Chavez and continues under current president Nicholas Maduro.

Venezuela has been deteriorating for several years--shortages of everything, then food rationing; massive civil demonstrations against the repression, government thugs killing demonstrators and so on.  Currency falling in value, inflation, the socialist president nationalizing businesses because he and his lackeys are convinced that will magically make goods appear on the shelves.

One pictures Maduro holding a gasoline nozzle at an empty filling station:  "I have this nozzle in my hand!  I control it!  So I demand that it give me gasoline when I squeeze the lever!"  And then staring at the pump in dull, dim-witted surprise when no gasoline comes out.

Anyway, short answer:  The nation's central bank announced inflation was almost 64 percent this year.  Oh, and in case there could be any doubt, it announced that Venezuela's economy is contracting.

There are endless examples of the fruits of socialism.  They're right out in the open, for anyone to examine.  Problem is, our schools don't examine those societies, those inevitable failures, so your kids graduate thinking socialism is absolutely fine.  Instead they're taught that all ideas, all cultures, all religions are equally valid,

They are totally defenseless against the bullshit peddled by socialists.  Things like "No one needs to work, yet everyone can have everything they want, for free, if you just elect us."

Most adults instinctively recognize that that's utter bullshit--an ancient siren song, sung by con artists and scammers for millenia.  But highschool kids--and I suspect about half of college students--know nothing about history, so if they haven't personally experienced it, it's not real to 'em.

This isn't an indictment:  If no one has taught you, and you're not old enough to have experienced something directly, how are you supposed to know its easily-predicted outcomes?

So back to Venezuela:  The socialists won an election, then got a socialist legislature to change that nation's constitution to remove term limits and allow Chavez to stay on as president.  They've done all the things socialist thugs do, and the effects are just as non-socialists predicted.

Sort of like Obamacare:  "We have this great plan:  We force everyone to buy health insurance, and if you're one of our favored groups we'll give you a nice fat check which will make yours almost free.  So 30 million more people will have health insurance, but everyone will pay less.  And it won't add a dime to the deficit!  Isn't that great?!

And half the country applauds wildly.  "What a brilliant idea!  The Democrats care Sooo much about ordinary Americans!"   And against that kind of wide-eyed adoration, trying to point out that this is fiscally impossible gets nowhere.

Finally, if you want to see how far gone the U.S. Left is, here's how a writer for "The Nation" sees the situation in Venezuela.  You won't believe it.