Another Classic from our Tireless Hero

This it too rich! Apparently ethanol is a giant conspiracy by the US to starve the rest of the world. I kid you not - I have this straight from Fidel Castro.

Castro wrote that during a Monday meeting between the U.S. president and American automobile manufacturers, "The sinister idea of converting food into combustibles was definitively established as the economic line of the foreign policy of the United States."

The "sinister" idea. Wasn't this the same US that supposedly invaded Iraq to steal its oil? At least, that's what his line was back in 2005. And before that, in 1998, it went something like this:

According to the calculations of renowned economists, the world economy grew six-fold and the production of wealth and services grew from less than five trillion to more than twenty-nine trillion dollars between 1950 and 1997. Why then is it still the case that each year, 12 million children under five years of age die -- that is to say 33,000 per day -- of whom the overwhelming majority could be saved?

In short, as far as Fidel Castro is concerned, whatever the US does is just bad. Invade Iraq? It's for the oil! Wait, they're trying to introduce an alternative to oil? Those filthy bastards are stealing the world's food. ON PURPOSE! Wait, I said in 1998 that they produce way more food than the world needs and are too greedy to share? Um...well...

What a nutjob. Here's the truth: ethanol is NOT a conspiracy to starve the world. The world is capable of feeding itself several times over. The reason it doesn't is not because the US is "too greedy" to feed it for free - it's because feeding people for free is immoral. Or, more accurately, feeding them for free when they're capable of feeding themselves is immoral. All that foreign aid does is prop up despicable regimes. The reason, for example, that Ethiopia is starving is NOT becuase the US refuses to give it food. The US gives it TONS of food. It's because Ethiopia's economy was destroyed in the 70s by Marxists, and Castro helped them do it. Ditto virtually every other failed state in Africa. Consider, for another example, how well Angola is doing now thanks to all Castro's generous "assistance" in the 70s. The pattern couldn't possibly be clearer. If there are 12million children that die before age 5, then roughly all 12million of them live in Socialist countries. Give a man a fish, he eats for a day - teach him how to fish, he eats forever. It doesn't matter that the US wants to turn corn into ethanol. We made the damn corn, we can do with it what we want. If someone else would care to make some corn, he is free to give it to the oppressed masses - but it isn't going to do them a whit of good. The only thing that helps people is allowing them to produce and keep the products of their own labor. Castro advocates a system that does just the opposite - expects people to produce, but doesn't let them keep what they make. THAT is why Cuba's economy is a shambles. And THAT is why Africa is a shambles. It's the Marxism, stupid - not western "greed." People - surprise, surprise - won't make things if you just go and take it from them as soon as it gets produced!

Let's consider what would happen if we accepted Castro's suggestion that we just hand over all our surplus corn to people who aren't going to pay us for it. Do you think even for a minute that we would maintain the same stunning level of agricultural production we currently do if we stopped paying our farmers? Yeah, gee, thanks for all the corn you grew, Mr. Smith. We in Washington have determined that you don't really need it, so we're going to take it from you and give it to other people. And we'll pay you only for what we think you really needed to produce, how 'bout that? Really, I don't think anyone should be surprised under such a system to find that the next year Mr. Smith only produces as much corn as they're going to pay him for.

This stuff is so basic. Why is there Socialism? I just don't get it. As for Castro - go ahead and die already, you old fossil. The world has already suffered enough from your ideas. We don't need a repeat.