Manonthestreet
Diamond Member
- May 20, 2014
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Maduro has deepened and lengthened their misery....Dont see how seizing companies or dictating the price they will sell their product at is helping,....Certainly doesn't give a damn about the misery he creates.and the problems in Venezuela are not directly related to socialism itself since we have the same problems here in the USA we seem strong but that is because the US has much financial leverage but yet runs up a huge debt that can destabilize US economies if allowed to grow past the point of equity.
Corruption. ... Discontent with corruption was cited by opposition-aligned groups as one of the reasons for the 2014 Venezuelan protests. Venezuela used to be a wealthy nation of Latin America, but a corrupt system along with drop in oil prices drove the country into political and economic crisis.
What happened in VZ is entirely on Chavez, no one else. Maduro is just an extension of Chavez.
The problem is VZ is that they promised too much to people and couldn't pay for it. When they couldn't pay for it, they ran up big debts. When they were having problems with their debts, they started printing money to pay for their debts. The printing money caused high inflation, which hurts the poor as everyday things get more expensive. In response, the government - as economic illiterate governments are wont to do - imposed price controls on many things. Because costs still kept rising but end prices could not, businesses couldn't make any money and stopped making and distributing things. The incompetent socialist government then started blaming evil capitalists putting profits ahead of the people, but what business is going to operate at a loss forever? So shortages and rationing became widespread. Now, the army and government are hoarding goods for itself because that's Maduro's power base - keep the judiciary and the army happy, and he can maintain power. They started booting out foreign companies and expropriating oil fields and mines. They also fired a ton of highly qualified people at the state oil company PdVSA and packed the company full of Chavez cronies who knew little about the energy business. Many of the qualified people left the country. Oil production in VZ fell from 3.3 million barrels a day at the peak when Chavez was in power to 1.4 million today, which is incredible. When the government was pumping oil full-bore, the price of oil had to be $120 a barrel for the government to balance its budget. Oil accounts for over 80% of the VZ budget.
It is pure, unadulterated leftist economic incompetence that has repeated itself over and over and over again in the Third World.
When Marx said "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce," this is what he was referring to.