L Slattery's has a dig at Bono's endorsement of capitalism at Davos "There was no word on how much poverty capitalism has actually created, but maybe he’s saving that.."

Sadly the writer provides no evidence of capitalism ever having created poverty! https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/brexit-moves-lottery-fails-and-bono-s-capitalism-reprise-1.3768074

This wouldn't be worth mentioning if it was one-off. But it's not. There is barely a single op-ed writer, public intellectual, academic or politician that is prepared to offer a defense of our way of life (ie liberal individualism and free markets)

From Michael D Higgins down to every trainee staff reporter, civil servant or primary school teacher, there is unanimity in their world view: State power good, capitalism bad. Wealth causes poverty. The only solution to poverty is more tax and more state regulation and control.

This wouldn't be a problem if the world of ideas existed in parallel to the practical world. But (as Higgins himself says, correctly), ideas matter. Venezuela didn't start with Chavez, much less Maduro. It started with with a single, bad idea: One person's gain is another's loss

The "zero sum game" view of the economy and the ideas and implications that flow from that idea is the basis upon which activists in universities and beyond have waged a sustained war on the individual and private industry

By the time Chavez arrived, the left in Venezuela had already completed their "long march through the institutions". Marxist/postmodern theories of power were promoted to articles of faith. The public conversation had a singular focus on constitutional changes to address poverty

The rest is history. So while comparisons between Ireland and Venezuela today seem far-fetched, they are similar in the ways that matter: ALL institutions have been captured by enemies of personal liberty and free market economics, and liberalism is dead in the public discourse.

Worryingly there's a coordinated campaign to dilute property rights, embed positive rights (eg right to housing) in the constitution and all while the govt of the day continues to operate a hostile environment for business owners who are portrayed as and treated like criminals.

In conclusion, Ireland will have a hard left government within five years. That is inevitable not because there are are no liberal political parties to vote for but because there is almost no-one making the liberal argument that would help to create a market for liberal policies.