Venezuela collapsed due to corruption and mismanagement, not socialism.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres...154605494.html
The political positions of American politicians frequently described as "socialist" either by themselves or by their detractors, such as Warren, Sanders, and AOC, are not the same political positions that lead to Venezuela's downfall. Most of their platforms are based on socialist or welfare policies of first world nations. The reforms these people want have been successful in many first world nations where they've been implemented.
Furthermore, none of them want a full conversion to socailism. Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders himself stated in no unclear terms that he wants to keep the means of production in the US private. They all want a capitalist system. But they want reasonable fetters on the system so the middle and lower classes are protected by the abuse of greedy corporations.
So can we please stop with the comparisons to Venezuela, which fell apart due to corruption and not socialism? No one wants to emulate Venezuela, not even Venezuelans.
There are valid criticisms against AOC, Warren or Sanders, but kneejerk comparisons to Venezuela are just stupid.
The top answer on this stack exchange explains it well:
https://politics.stackexchange.com/q...e-of-socialism
Democratic Socialists look to the Nordic model, not the Soviet model. Democratic socialists reject authoritarianism and reject the seizure of private enterprise, both of which were instrumental in Venezuela's collapse.Although many political candidates in the United States are now self-identifying as "Democratic Socialist," they tend to model their principals after Nordic Model Social Democracy. Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism are somewhat close in many ways, but Social Democracy is a bit more like a well-taxed Capitalist economy with social benefits; whereas Democratic Socialism has more government control over the economy, property and institutions are more public than private, and there are more elements of a decentralized planned economy.
It is pure dishonesty and ignorance to claim that the policies of democratic socialists will lead the US the way of Venezuela.