Venezuelan children are STARVING to death as food must now be delivered under armed guard

All of the various economic models employed by dictators, thugs, and autocratic rulers worldwide have produced nothing but misery, hardship, and death, yet far too many American Millennials are supportive and even fascinated by them.

They are, in no particular order, communism, Marxism, and socialism.

Communism, as practiced by the Soviet Union, was ultimately responsible for its demise.

Marxism, as practiced by Cuba, transformed over decades what was once a thriving Caribbean hotspot into an impoverished, decrepit nightmare.

And socialism, as its being practiced in Venezuela, is turning that once-prosperous South American jewel into a failed state. As reported by The New York Times, things have gotten so bad there that food transports cannot move without a military escort.

What's worse, the country's most vulnerable citizens — it's children — are starving to death at a much higher rate than the adult population, which is also high:

With delivery trucks under constant attack, the nation's food is now transported under armed guard. Soldiers stand watch over bakeries. The police fire rubber bullets at desperate mobs storming grocery stores, pharmacies and butcher shops. A 4-year-old girl was shot to death as street gangs fought over food.

It wasn't always like this. Before sycophantic, power-hungry "revolutionaries" Hugo Chavez and current leader Nicolas Maduro (a tyrant who holds onto power by blocking opposition candidates from running against him), Venezuela — an OPEC member with the world's largest oil reserves — was the envy of South America. In fact, not long ago Venezuela, thanks to its oil riches, was the fourth-richest economy in the world. (Related: Banned video reveals the horrors of Venezuela's starving population.)

The country used its oil wealth like Democrats in the U.S. use the Treasury: To pay for heaps of social programs and subsidize everything from transportation to wages.

The problem with that socialist approach is that eventually when market conditions change and national income falls, the programs don't go away and must still be paid for. Worse, over decades, the population comes to depend on them as alternatives to the socialist structure eventually fade away.