Helping the Poor

Zimbabwe is seemingl on the verge of collapse. Inflation running that greater than 1,000% with unemployment near 80%, with the military used to prop up a seemingly inept dictator. Why do I not trust socialism? Because I don't trust the government any more than I trust anybody else - but there are far fewer checks on the government.

By evicting the white farmers who owned the land (and who knew how to use it), Zimbabwe ran out of town those people best equipped to use the land. As employers and a part of the community, they were a key part of Zimbabwe's growth in the mid 1990's. Poor harvests the past several years have been blamed on little rain and the Western sanctions targeted at President Mugabe's leadership. But note:

Last month, the United Nations distributed emergency food aid to an
estimated one-quarter of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people. International aid
officials say many are surviving on one meal a day -- or less. Despite the best
rains in 20 years, the government predicts this year's grain harvest -- in a
country once known as the breadbasket of southern Africa -- will be half the
size of the 2001 harvest, when the eviction of white commercial farmers began.

If you want the poor people fed, let the farmers who know how to use the land use it. Don't seize it, give it to those who can't use it, and blame someone else.