Even Lenin knew soon enough that it couldn't work. Hence the New Economic Policy, which allowed a certain amount of privatization. But Lenin died and Stalin killed off the private farmers - the kulaks - and collectivized agriculture at the cost of 5 million starved to death.

Communism has destroyed agriculture everywhere it has been tried. If there are starving Venezuelans now, wait five years.

Very well stated, Scott. You are right.

Where are the MSM, the United Nations and Amnesty International? Where is the outrage for the disappeared, for the systematic loss of human rights? Their silence is deafening.

So sad to see history repeat it self....it feels like going back in time and attending the launching of the Titanic....one would hope that by now mankind would have learned better than falling for the mermaid songs of populism, but nope!...Even in developed countries like USA we see opportunistic scumbags like Rangel, Sharpton, Ferrer, Serrano and other parasites bawling their hypocritical tunes into the air while the confused and the ignorant clap and join the choir like mindless moths into the light...

I honestly don't think there are any writers out there who are better than Montaner. He really is the greatest writer.

Is the Cuban Regime reading this blog?
Last week, I made various comments on this blog, which I titled "Theater of the Absurd" a few times.
Is it just coincidence that today, Granma's English-language edition headlines one of their articles "Theater of the Absurd"?
http://granmai.cubaweb.com/ingles/
The Ñangaras are unoriginal copycats. It would not surprise me that they check this blog daily and steal ideas from it for their "Batalla de las Ideas." That reminds me, has anyone heard whatever happened to Jim "Puente Roto" DeFede? (Puente Roto=Nadie lo pasa).

I agree, Montaner rules!..
Maybe you all know this site (together with this blog, not brown-nosing intended here, I really mean it) is one of my best findings on the web lately.

http://www.firmaspress.com/

Saludos para todos!

Thank you, Jimmy Carter. Uncle Joe Stalin smiles upon your work from the afterlife. Remind us, though, why you love commies so much but refuse to live in one of those wonderful communist states?

Isn't Montaner's hyperventalating a bit much considering the only millionaires that have to worry are those that don't have proof of their land ownership or have chosen to leave the property completely fallow? Lula in Brazil - and evey other progressive government - has done the same thing with marvelous results. The peasants need land or they will just keep moving to the cities and building more slums.

You're having an episode, Matthew.

Oh and we have a staff rule on this blog: NEVER insult Carlos Alberto Montaner. It's not done.

We made that rule just for you.

The peasants need land, what a load. People who want to farm find a way to farm. Nothing could stop them from moving into the jungle and clearing some space if they want to grow food. Those peasants moving into the city would do the same thing I'd do if you gave me a hundred acres. I'd say "now what?" and sit there and starve.

Farmland needs to be left in the hands of those who are using it to produce, whether they're an old family farm, an individual new at it, or a corporation (yes, even a foreign coporation). They're there because they know what they're doing (hopefully), they're there because they WANT to be there.

Mess with that basic concept and as a country you're screwed.

Oh gee, I guess what I just described could be called free enterprise. Good idea, maybe I can get a patent.

Perfectly stated, Jay!

Things aren't so marvelous in Brazil either. Brazilians are now the second largest number of illegal aliens sneaking into the US.

10% of Cuba and 15% of Mexico have moved to the US. Now Brazilians. All have run from socialism, where they see no opportunity.

And why is redistribution of land and other wealth always called "progressive"? What makes it progressive? After 165 years of complete and utter failure, isn't Marxism rather backward-looking rather than progressive?

Jay, you've got no clue. I think peasants who have grown up on the land farming for others would know a bit better than me and you what to do with vacant land if they were able to actually own title to it. And again, we are not talking about expropriating "farmland," we are talking about vacant land not being used for anything.

And the Brazillian migration increases have nothing to do with Lula's socialism, which has brought the economy out of the doldrums and brought food stability to the poor. It has to do with new lax Mexican immigraiton enforcement laws at the airports. They no longer ask quesitons of Brazillians coming with a 1-way ticket and a tourist visa to Mexico.

The land being expropriated in Venezuela is not idle land. What Chavez is expropriating are the best farms in the country, the most productive. Not only the very large ones, even those only over 300 Hectares are being expropriated. The Chavistas do not want idle land, they want what's in the farms (the cattle, the crops, the irrigation systems). For idle land, the state is the largest owner of land in Venezuela. Also, the peasants do not become owners of the land they take. They are give something called "agrarian letters" that given them "permission" to use the land (as long as they do with their plot what the government wants; they're not free to do as they please), but it remains a property of the state.

Matthew, I have a question for you. Do you own any property? How would you like it if the government decided to redistribute it to someone else? Say maybe George Bush's administration? We have plenty of landless peasants here in the US living in "squalid" cities.