That depends. The United States is not full on socialism like Venezuela, but we've been adding more and more socialist programs for years.

I've been researching the topic since long before Venezuela adopted socialism.

I've also spoken and interacted with a lot of people that did. I've also interacted with people after socialism was ended. Especially from the Eastern European regions.

Yet, whether you LIVE in something is irrelevant to whether it makes you know WHY it is happening. A lot of people experience problems and jump to conclusions about the cause that are wrong.

So I don't look at one country. I look at the history of socialism, and the many times it has been tried, and the large numbers of deaths just within the last century during its implementation.

What is happening in Venezuela is what many of us expected to happen. Why? It is what has happened in other cases of places that did the same.

Socialism doesn't work.

Crony Capitalism is not good either. I do not endorse it.

Yet people often try to treat free market and crony capitalism like they are the same thing. There is nothing "FREE" about cronyism.