Ignoring the Plight of the Venezualans for a Greater Good

One way to solve problems is to outlaw them. So President Maduro of Venezuela has decreed that any company that goes out of business has committed economic treason and its employees are subject to arrest.

Inflation went from 19 percent in 2012 to, the IMF estimates, 720 percent this year, and a projected 2,200 percent the next. So the army has started forcing butchers to sell food at a 90 percent loss, and the government has said it can force anyone to leave their job and work for at least two months growing food instead. Amnesty International has said this is tantamount to "forced labor," which is just a polite way of describing what's very close to modern-day slavery.
An article on Venezuela in the WashPo ends this way. "It brings to mind the old joke: Under capitalism, man exploits man, and under Bolivarian socialism, it's just the opposite."

Really? I suppose there is some absurd humor there but it is more absurd. Capitalism is the free exchange of labor and goods for labor and goods. Nothing going on in the typically failing Socialist state is free. And exchange is never involved--unless you include bartering for your life.
There's a better joke: If the socialist government will just outlaw gravity, there will be fewer skinned knees and cheaper air travel.