Postmortem (Venezuela)

PJ Media ^ | 2-13-2014 | Richard Fernandez

[Sir Napsalot]

The suddenness of Venezuela’s collapse should have come as no surprise because downfalls are inherently abrupt. Collapse is a phase change. One moment something is sailing along fat, dumb and happy and the next moment it is sinking beneath the waves. The change from two to one is a loss of 50%; but the change from one to zero is binary.

(snip)

Think of not being able to buy soap, rice or toilet paper or order a cup of coffee, where ,a href="http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2014/02/13/postmortem/theglobeandmail.com/news/world/venezuelas-economy-on-the-edge-of-the-apocalypse/article16845406/">even the rich are feeling poor. ......"In the grocery stores, both state-run shops and expensive delicatessens, customers barter information: I saw soap here, that store has rice today. ....”

Imagine there’s no money to keep up the sovereign bond payments, the only source of money to keep power plants going.

Welcome to Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, a country with the fifth largest oil reserves in the world and absolutely broke. It’s a remarkable achievement for Chavismo. A just-wow moment. Socialism is useless at everything except for smashing things in record time. There it excels. It’s hard to imagine that as late as the 1980s Venezuela had the highest standard of living in Latin America. But then in 1960 Detroit was the richest city in the world in per capita income. Now it’s well … Detroit.

James Eccleton remarked on how the mighty have fallen. “Brazil is becoming Argentina, Argentina is becoming Venezuela, and Venezuela is becoming Zimbabwe.” The question that always puzzles historians about the fall of great and rich countries is: ‘why didn’t they say it coming?’ How did they let disaster sneak up on them?

[Sir Napsalot]

As always, Wretchard's article needs to be read in full (and sometimes for me, twice).

Back on topic: The mistake is to assume the good time(s) will continue indefinitely.

[4Liberty]

Bump

[Politically Correct]

Coming soon to a city near you.....

[Sir Napsalot]

(more excerpt): The real damage was internal. A society can survive the loss of things, but it cannot survive without institutions or the destruction of culture. Culture is to nations what an immune system is to people. Nations under siege fall back on some atavistic condition. Thus, occupied Poland becomes more Catholic, as does Ireland, and as Egypt perhaps becomes more Muslim. They fall back on the known and the comforting. City Hall might collapse and the factory temporarily closed but if culture and identity survive these things can be reopened again.

The apocalypse of Syria means that many people don’t even want to reopen things any more. They hate their neighbors, individually and collectively.

Sobering and ominous.

[dfwgator]

Chavez, giving credit where it is due, at least had the charisma and political savvy to create the Cult of Personality. Once he passed, it was only a matter of time before things would fall apart. Maduro is nothing but a buffoon, and most Chavez supporters think of him as a joke.

That’s why regimes based on a Cult of Personality are ultimately doomed when the leader passes.....See Yugoslavia and Tito.

[Paladin2]

"The genius of the Left — Chavez’s for example — is that it destroys things from the inside out.

They pervert religion, collapse the mores, abolish the family, shred the constitution and gradually expropriate the property. The differences from one day to the next are apparently imperceptible, but it is harder and harder to go back until finally there is no reversal of ‘progressive gains’ possible at all.

The public is finally faced with the stark choice between chaos or authoritarianism. And most people will chose the Boss over the Mob."

[Texas Fossil]

F. Bastiat wrote a convincing analysis of the failure of Socialism in 1849.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15962/15962-h/15962-h.htm

Had anyone learned from that, imagine the number of unnecessary deaths during the 20th century alone.

Oh, but the right people have not tried this yet? // sarcasm

May God help the U.S. now.

[Slyfox]

Bump

[skinkinthegrass]

ok..I'll say it, i hope pResident 0'Muslim gets AID$;
he deserves it, let his "cult of personality" collapse.

[Obadiah]

The apocalypse of Syria means that many people don’t even want to reopen things any more. They hate their neighbors, individually and collectively.

How utterly sad that you can see this happening right here in America.

[AU72]

That’s why regimes based on a Cult of Personality are ultimately doomed when the leader passes.....See Yugoslavia and Tito.

Didn't happen in North Korea when Kim il-Jung assumed room temperature. And Castro has been out of power for a few years,

[Kartographer]

Preppers’ PING!!

[M Kehoe]

We should send Sean Penn and Danny Glover down there to help.

I crack me up.

5.56mm

[Kartographer]

“Brazil is becoming Argentina, Argentina is becoming Venezuela, and Venezuela is becoming Zimbabwe.”

And America is coming up strong from the back.

[Lazamataz]

Venezuela was my ‘escape country’.

I am so screwed.

[Kartographer]

"How utterly sad that you can see this happening right here in America."

Who wants to open a business in Detroit, Chicago, LA......?

[Kartographer]

I thought you was going to Finland?