SOCIALISM IN TEN WORDS: Venezuela Promises Pregnant Women a Handout That’s Worth Almost Nothing.

Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro announced during an annual address that pregnant women will soon be awarded a small cash subsidy. The monthly payment of 700,000 bolivars is, at the current exchange rate, worth about $3.83, according to CNN.

The subsidy would have been worth $17 as recently as last November; hyperinflation amid a collapsing economy is likely to make the subsidy worth even less in the weeks to come.

After the women give birth, their stipend will increase to 1 million bolivars, or $5.48, Maduro said. He did not provide a reason for starting the new payment scheme, which he reportedly expects will apply to 151,000 expecting mothers.

In the end, socialism’s promises are worth less than nothing.

I should also note that Laignee Barron’s report blames Venezuela’s “recession” — really, that’s the word they used — on low oil prices, rather than on the true culprits: Wreckers, hoarders, saboteurs, Trotskyites, kulaks, Yankee Imperialists, counterrevolutionaries, and Jews.