By Selwyn Duke

At a former workplace many years ago, I learned that a
certain fellow was cheating the business out of rental fees. So I confronted
him, but he showed no contrition. Instead he replied, “I deserve it [the extra
proceeds].” In case you haven’t guessed, he was a devout leftist.

This story is brought to mind by the revelation that the
late Hugo Chavez had amassed $2 billion during his tenure as president of
Venezuela. Yes, that’s one of those nine-zeros figures. Now, unfortunately for
Mr. Heat and Sulfur, the Big Theft technique doesn’t quite work like the Big
Lie technique: if you steal a sum big enough, people don’t start to believe you
earned it. But why would this man — a champion of the poor, critic of
capitalism, and beneficent bestower of charity — steal so much for himself?

Of course, given that ol’ Hugo should rightfully have ended
up at the looped at of a rope, perhaps we can’t blame him for having wanted to
create an exile-facilitating safety net. As to his justification, however, I’d
bet dollars to doughnuts it was akin to that of my former colleague. His
“feeling” likely was, “I do so much for the poor, I’ve fed so many people, and
I’ve given away so much oil that I deserve it.”

Read the rest here.