I was going to share this on @dlike but I was getting an error. So I'm sharing this on Busy. At the start I want you to take part in a guessing game. I want you to read the following proclamation and guess the country, political party and if possible, the name of the person who made it. Even if you can't guess the exact year, try to approximate it. Good Luck!

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We must check the limitless and furious avarice which with no thought for mankind hastens to its own gain. This avarice, with no thought of the common need, is ravaging the wealth of those in extremes of need. We — the protectors of the human race — have agreed that justice should intervene as arbiter, so that the solution which mankind itself could not supply might, by the remedies of our foresight, be applied to the general betterment of all.

In the markets, immoderate prices are so widespread that the uncurbed passion for gain is not lessened by abundant supplies. Men whose aim it always is to profit, to restrain general prosperity, men who individually abounding in great riches which could completely satisfy whole nations, try to capture smaller fortunes and strive after ruinous percentages. Concern for humanity in general persuades us to set a limit to the avarice of such men. Profiteers, covertly attacking the public welfare, are extorting prices from merchandise such that in a single purchase a soldier is deprived of his bonus and salary.

Therefore, we have decreed that there be established a maximum so that when the violence of high prices appears anywhere, avarice might be checked by the limits of our statute. To ensure adequate enforcement, anyone who shall violate this statute shall be subject to a capital penalty. The same penalty shall apply to one who in the desire to buy shall have conspired against the statute with the greed of the seller. Also subject to the death penalty is he who believes he must withdraw his goods from the general market because of this regulation.

We urge upon the loyalty of all that a law constituted for the public good may be observed with obedience and care.

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So is there anybody willing to take any guesses? What if I give you few names:

• Bernie Sanders
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
• Elizabeth Warren

What if I'm pulling a trick question and the politician is either British or Australian..... Shall we guess the country? What if that is also a trick question trying to play on your recent memories and I'm actually taking this quote from Hugo Chávez?

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We hasten, therefore, to apply the remedies long demanded by the situation, satisfied that no one can complain that our intervention with regulations is untimely or unnecessary, trivial or unimportant. These measures are directed against the unscrupulous, who have perceived in our silence of so many years a lesson in restraint but have been unwilling to imitate it. For who is so insensitive and so devoid of human feeling that he can be unaware or has not perceived that uncontrolled prices are widespread in the sales taking place in the markets and in the daily life of the cities? Nor is the uncurbed passion for profiteering lessened either by abundant supplies or by fruitful years.

It is our pleasure, therefore, that the prices listed in the subjoined schedule be held in observance in the whole of our Empire.

It is our pleasure that anyone who resists the measures of this statute shall be subject to a capital penalty for daring to do so. And let no one consider the statute harsh, since there is at hand a ready protection from danger in the observance of moderation. We therefore exhort the loyalty of all, so that a regulation instituted for the public good may be observed with willing obedience and due scruple, especially as it is seen that by a statute of this kind provision has been made, not for single municipalities and peoples and provinces but for the whole world. The prices for the sale of individual items which no one may exceed are listed below.

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Now that must have given it away. Earlier I used a little different translation from Mises Institute which can be found here. Another translation with a full list of price controls can be found here. The translated quotations are from Edictum de Pretiis Rerum Venalium issued in 301 by Roman Emperor Diocletian. As for how things turned out to be...... well it was better than Venezuela/Cuba etc. The Edict did not solve all of the problems in the economy. Diocletian's mass minting of coins of low metallic value continued to increase inflation. By the end of Diocletian's reign in 305, the Edict was for all practical purposes ignored. After few years things stabilized more after the emperor was forced to leave the throne and massive inflation stopped. It took much more time for Rome to fall.

History Rhymes

Not only you could sell the Edictum de Pretiis Rerum Venalium as a modern manifesto, you'd also find millions of people who'd rally behind it. These days the effects would be much worse than few years of misery. In some Buddhist traditions it is explained that when ignorance takes over the world, mankind will die not of illness or war but famine. It is the saddest kind of death as it would have been the easiest to stop. There is no army to hold off or viruses to get rid of. But human ignorance and madness can hurt itself far more than any outside force ever will.