Frederic J. Stimson was the first United States Ambassador to Argentina 1915–1921. Previous envoys held the title Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. He was a Harvard Law graduate and writer of several influential books on law.
He understood socialism perfectly well, much better than almost any American today.
Here is the text in context:
Meanwhile, the collapse of socialism in Venezuela cannot possibly be held to be surprising except for the speed which it occurred.
It is a common misconception that socialism is about helping poor people. Actually, what socialism does is create poor people, and keep them poor. And that’s not by accident.
Under capitalism, rich people become powerful. But under socialism, powerful people become rich. When you look at a socialist country like Venezuela , you find that the rulers are fabulously wealthy even as the ordinary citizenry deals with empty supermarket shelves and electricity rationing.
The daughter of Venezuela’s socialist ruler, Hugo Chavez , is the richest individual in Venezuela, worth billions of dollars... .
But poverty isn’t a byproduct of socialism: It’s a requirement, as illustrated by Cato Institute analyst Juan Carlos Hidalgo's report concerning Venezuela:
A couple of years ago, the then minister of education admitted that the aim of the regime’s policies was “not to take the people out of poverty so they become middle class and then turn into escuálidos” (a derogatory term to denote opposition members). In other words, the government wanted grateful, dependent voters, not prosperous Venezuelans.
Update: Richard Fernandez: The damage done by socialism,
could never have been inflicted by the mere round-the-clock bombing of 1,000 B-29s dropping high explosives. No rain of bombs could have obliterated every store, business, factory, school, hospital and larder with the fine-grained thoroughness achieved by the ideas of the Communist Manifesto. Only an idea capable of seeping into every nook and cranny can do that. The destructive potential of a squadron of B-2 bombers is trivial compared to the potential inherent in a Sealed Train carrying an agitator or a thousand radical madrassahs preaching murder far into the night.If every sigificant naval power in the world had united to blockade Venezuela's ports the people of that country would not be suffering much worse.
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