Amidst Hyperinflation, Venezuelan Government Decrees a ‘Happiness’ Ministry

In Venezuela, “happiness” will now be imposed by fiat.

The Venezuelan government has announced a new bureaucracy called the Vice Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness

From Telegraph/AP

A new Vice Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness has been created by Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan president, in an attempt to coordinate all the "mission" programmes created by Hugo Chavez to alleviate poverty.

"I have decided to create this Vice ministry and I have given it this name to honour Chávez and Bolívar," Mr Maduro announced on Thursday in a televised speech made from the presidential palace. He said that the Vice ministry aimed to take care of the most "sublime, vulnerable and delicate, to those who are most loved by anyone who calls themselves a revolutionary, a Christian and Chavista."

Oil-rich Venezuela is chronically short of basic goods and medical supplies. Annual inflation is running officially at near 50 per cent and the US dollar now fetches more than seven times the official rate on the black market.

The creation of the ministry sparked widespread mirth and mocking in the streets and on social media.

In a state of hunger, shortages and hyperinflation, the Venezuelan government will force their citizenry to be “happy”. Maybe frowning, sulking or crying in public or in households will be prohibited.

In reality, the only entities who will be "happy" are the political leadership and the bureaucracy who will be spending more of other people money, and who will virtually dictate on lives of their constituencies to conform with the conceit of their leaders. “Be happy! Or else….”

Well in my view this fits Australia's Walk Free Foundation definition of “modern day slavery” which according to the Los Angeles Times, takes many forms, and is known by many names. Whether it is called human trafficking, forced labor, slavery or slavery-like practices … victims of modern slavery have their freedom denied, and are used and controlled and exploited by another person for profit, sex or the thrill of domination." (bold mine)

Happiness can never be imposed. Happiness is subjective and comes from the individual's inner self. 

As the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises explained, (Liberalism p.46)  [bold mine]

Whoever wants to see the world governed according to his own ideas must strive for dominion over men's minds. It is impossible, in the long run, to subject men against their will to a regime that they reject. Whoever tries to do so by force will ultimately come to grief, and the struggles provoked by his attempt will do more harm than the worst government based on the consent of the governed could ever do. Men cannot be made happy against their will

Happiness as a social policy is an example of the height of statist lunacy.

But as Mises warned Venezuela’s Happiness Ministry will eventually "grieve" or have its pretentiousness exposed.

Graphic: World’s Military Conscription

According to the Economist,

THIS month Germany suspended military conscription and its civilian counterpart, community service. After 50 years and the service of 8.4m young men, Germany is set to shrink the Bundeswehr from 220,000 to a maximum of 185,000 troops. But conscription still remains part of the constitution and available in the case of an emergency. Similarly in America, while "the draft" ended in 1973, laws require men to register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of their 18th birthday. This provides a deep pool of manpower in the event of a national emergency. Where compulsory military service is enforced in Europe it ranges from 260 days (in Switzerland), to 26 months (in Cyprus). As the map below shows, conscription is most popular in Asia and Africa.

Here’s the Libertarian take on military conscription. The following quotes with bold emphasis mine:

From Professor Bryan Caplan

Slavery is involuntary servitude; conscription is involuntary military servitude; therefore not only is conscription slavery; it's a particularly heinous form of slavery that often ends in maiming and death.

From Congressman Ron Paul

Ronald Reagan said it best: "The most fundamental objection to draft registration is moral." He understood that conscription assumes our nation's young people belong to the state. Yet America was founded on the opposite principle, that the state exists to serve the individual. The notion of involuntary servitude, in whatever form, is simply incompatible with a free society.

In short, military conscription is a conventional form of slavery. Perhaps Germany’s move could set the trend for more individual liberation and freedom worldwide.

Quote of the Day: Capitalism Ended Slavery

Another gem from Professor Don Boudreaux, (bold highlights mine)

"Slavery was common throughout history until the age of industrial capitalism. Only then did this heinous institution disappear. Slavery was killed by capitalism because that institution puts a premium on creativity, initiative, and good judgment (which even the mightiest slave-master’s whip cannot extract from its victims), and because the ethos that gives life to capitalism – free-market liberalism – is hostile to the ownership of man by man. That the first-to-industrialize English were the first abolitionists is no coincidence.

"In North America, pressure brought by capitalism to end slavery was countered by the very agency that you praise as slaves’ liberator: government. From 17th and 18th century slave codes to the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and of 1850, government in America actively deployed force on behalf of slaveholders. Without this force, slavery would never have taken root as deeply as it did in the U.S. and would have died away sooner and with less bloodshed."