Victoria's Socialist Experiment Has Failed

Socialism, even when it's pretending to be something else, always leads to shambles.

There is no more recent example of that than the state of the State of Victoria.

Premier Dan Andrews has been running a dictatorial socialist agenda with next to no opposition and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Not only is Victoria's debt forecast to climb past $171 billion in the next few years, they have imposed a string of new taxes and levies on their long suffering residents.

These include an additional $4.7 billion in property taxes, $3.9 billion in payroll taxes and a $3 billion mental health levy.

These taxes are in response to the financial damage the government caused during their draconian and idiotic COVID response measures.

On top of that, Victoria has nearly 10% of all working people (354,800) employed in the public sector.

The public sector is the only thing consistently growing in the state for the past four years!

Although it's been denied by the Premier, a man not renowned for telling the truth, Victoria is broke and things look set to get worse.

That reality was confirmed when the Commonwealth Games, scheduled to be held in Victoria in 2026, were cancelled yesterday.

The official reason was due to cost blowouts expected to be more than $4 billion, taking the final cost to around $7 billion.

The cancellation is a massive embarrassment for a supposedly first world government to cancel such an event so close to the commencement date.

The run-up to these types of events are usually many years and every government that bids knows the final costs are always in excess of those officially announced.

That the government thought they could host the 2026 games with a budget of $2.4 billion was a joke from the start. The same event they hosted in 2006 cost $2.9 billion, so allowing for inflation the budget was never realistic.

That didn't stop Andrews from making the games promise to help him win an election. A pathetic opposition (and media) allowed him to get away with it.

Given how much socialist dictators like bread and circuses, this is a public humiliation for Dan Andrews. Not that he will really care.

This man has the hide of a rhinoceros and is seemingly comfortable with any amount of truth dissembling during his public utterances.

Given Andrews repeated electoral success, other State Premiers have sought to follow his lead. Eventually reality will catch up with them too.

In the end, reality always comes back to money.

Socialists don't think it matters and they spend like drunken sailors on shore leave, which led to this famous quip from Margaret Thatcher.

“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”

That 'eventuality' is drawing near for Victoria but they are not alone.

Governments across the world have been spending more than they can afford in an effort to retain their grip on power.

The've sought to placate the people with handouts and offerings, while curtailing freedoms and autonomy.

It's been the same old socialism that's failed before dressed up in a cloak of first-world democracy with a capitalist system.

One thing that won't be different is the end result.

In that respect, Socialism, in whatever guise it is plied, always takes us to the same dreadful place.