Economists use beer as measure to document failures of socialism

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“Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World,” by Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell, is billed as a “worldwide tour guide written in plain English” which takes readers on a not-so-luxurious expedition into three countries that have embraced socialism – North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba – using beer as an indicator of economic concern.


“In Cuba, there were only two types of beer, almost the same in alcohol content and both tasted like skunky Budweiser. In North Korea, it was just god awful,” Lawson, who is also the director of the William J. O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom at Southern Methodist University, told Fox News. “And, in Venezuela, the country has basically run out of beer because the government planners couldn’t import enough barley.”

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“We were on the border of Colombia and Venezuela, and the Colombian side was awash with all kinds of beer. On the other side, Venezuela had nothing for sale and people had to cross into Colombia just to get the basic necessities,” said Powell, who is also the director of the Free Market Institute and a professor of economics at Texas Tech University. “It’s an important lesson for ‘Democratic Socialists’ in the U.S. to remember that (Hugo) Chavez came to power in free and fair elections, but socialism centralizes economic power and the system starts nationalizing farms, factories, even hotels. When oil prices were $100 a barrel, Venezuela could mask the dysfunction, but as oil prices went down over the last five years, they couldn’t hide the reality.”

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Nonetheless, Lawson also observed that even in a country like Sweden – often cited as a shining example of socialism – beer is widely available, but the cost is typically very high.

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“Our last trip was to the country of Georgia, and basically that was a socialist as it gets. But, it is now one of the highest countries in economic freedom,” quipped Powell. “And, using alcohol as our economic measure – when Georgia was under the USSR and their wine industry was under Soviet control, it was a disaster. Now, it’s a wine mecca, produces really unique wines that don’t exist anywhere else in the world, and it's where wine snobs from across the globe now go to taste.”

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“Socialism is a disaster everywhere it has been tried, historical evidence illustrates this,” added Lawson. “The freer the country is, the more it prospers.”

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