Rick Kelo on the Collapse of Venezuela's Co-Op Socialism

American Socialists like Bernie Sanders often claim they merely want workers to own part of the business.  Profit sharing, etc.  For that reason they often state publicly that they merely want a society made up of co-ops.  Of course these statements should be obvious lies since workers are free to buy stock in most of the large companies in this country already as they are publicly traded.

Rick Kelo

Still, we should examine co-op Socialism says Rick Kelo.  Kelo is a Classic Liberal thinker, and like most Classic Liberals, a Pacifist.  "Americans are already able to voluntarily and peacefully choose to go work at a co-op, found a co-op of their own, or buy stock in most large companies," says Richard Kelo.  "The fact many workers don't do those things is discounted by Socialists, but to the economist those are rational human actions.  People are very good at finding ways to buy things that are important to them.  If they don't prefer to own parts of the various major employers then they should be free to make that choice."

American Socialists had long championed Venezuela because the Venezuelan Constitution mandates worker co-operatives.  To Rick Kelo though these are nothing more than the proverbial Animal Farm, "Buying into a worker co-op in America is completely voluntary and peaceful.  A co-op in a Socialist economy isn't the same thing.  Workers are mandated to work at the co-op and have a portion of their pay seized to fund its ownership," Kelo points out.  "You can't really compare voluntary co-ops in capitalist economies with the forced co-ops in Socialist ones," he concludes.

Turns out Kelo is right.  In the summer of 2016 Venezuela began forcing the "worker-owners" in the nation's co-ops to work... at the barrel of a gun:

A new decree by Venezuela's government could make its citizens work on farms to tackle the country's severe food shortages.  That "effectively amounts to forced labor," according to Amnesty International, which derided the decree as "unlawful."  In a vaguely-worded decree, Venezuelan officials indicated that public and private sector employees could be forced to work in the country's fields for at least 60-day periods, which may be extended "if circumstances merit."
Source: CNN