Posted on 10/06/2013 7:27:45 PM PDT by bryan999
The army has been sent into toilet paper factories, fights for basic foodstuffs have resulted in several deaths and new, multi-million dollar oil tankers are sitting idle in dock. And, despite sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves, Venezuela’s socialist government can’t quite manage to keep the lights on.
Now many in Venezuela are wondering how much longer President Nicolas Maduro, the anointed successor of the country’s firebrand Leftist leader Hugo Chavez, can keep hold of the reins of its crumbling socialist revolution.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Funny how toilet paper is always a factor in socialist failure. Socialism — so highminded, but gets humiliated by TP every time.
I worked and lived in Venzuela for two years and this was before Chavez. There were never any shortages of food, fuel, or anything.
However, there was rampant corruption. This corruption is what caused the people to vote for Chavez. The public thought they had nothing to lose by voting for Chavez. They were unfortunately very wrong. It should also be noted that Chavez did win his first election honestly and was the will of the people. Chavez did not win the second election as it was stolen just as Maduro’s election was also stolen via vote fraud.
Chavez brought socialism to Venezuela. His reign also elevated corruption to new heights. This corruption will also be what ignites the revolution against Maduro. This revolution will be violent and ugly.
I have great compassion for the people of Venezuela. Most of them are good and just want an honest corrupt free government.
They will hang on to power until they are removed from office forcefully. They will never lose an election once they are put in office.
They used to say that in Moscow, everybody carried a newspaper because everybody could read; the real reason was that there was no toilet paper in Moscow!
It’s a shame that in this day and age that folks still can’t figure out that socialist governments do not work. Maybe they keep out google and such but you would think that folks would eventually get contact with the outside world enough to realize their problem. If not, well then maybe these folks deserve the government they voted for. Eventually, maybe they will learn in time...
Same as us I’d suspect...
It seems that Atlas is shrugging in Venezuela. if they only had a Wesley Mooch to get everything under control.
“It should also be noted that Chavez did win his first election honestly . . .”
That was after his failed military take over where he had snipers shoot demonstrators while he was holed up in the Presidential palace. But then the government let him go and look what happened.
If by honestly you mean by lying and promising things that he could never keep, okay
“This revolution will be violent and ugly.
I have great compassion for the people of Venezuela. Most of them are good and just want an honest corrupt free government.”
I have none of your quaint views of the peoples of Central/South AMerica. Their culture is a mixture of Spanish culture just after it emerged from 700 years of Muslim slavery. During those centuries, too many of MadMo’s beliefs were absorbed.
Note that what in Muslim societies is called Bak’sheesh is La Mordita in Spanish. Yup - means “bribe”. And now you know why corruption is endemic south of the USA border.
Factor in the incredible brutalities of those Central?South American “indigenous peoples”, from their ceremonial rites to the cannibalism, and then add a bit of Muslim cruelty and one can easily understand why Central/South American sultures are different from America.
We are the final fruition of the Judao-Christian concept of the individual, specifically the responsible individual. They are the result of Europes most ahrsh version of Christianity alloyed with an overdose of Islam, with an admixture of Stone AGe cannibal culture.
Just one small point is soooo telling. Americans have homes with large glass windows. “Latino homes have a well developed tradition of iron bars over all doors and windows. They know each other, and in their cultures, the “other” steals whatever isn’t secured because they are from a culture where security in person or property is unknown.
Theirs is NOT a society derived from English Common Law.
SOrry, but culture is determinative. Venezuela has a culture which assures their present situation will be repeated.
As they will not accept the deficiencies of their “culture” and adopt the American model(the only society which provides such freedom and wealth), they are condemned by their choice to being Venezuelan. And Venezuelans with sore butts from nasty TP substitutes, too.
Culture really does count. Theirs is very different from American culture.
Their nation is accordingly different - and will remain so.
Got that “honestly” thing from cpiii’s post, go yell at him.
Best line from the article:
“Meanwhile supermarket shelves sit empty. In late September, the government ordered the army into the country’s largest toilet paper factory as supplies dried up. Mr Maduro blamed the shortage on Venezuelans “eating more”.
The markets are empty, but there’s a shortage of TP because the people are eating more!
:p
Where’s Sean Penn when you need him?
“It’s a shame that in this day and age that folks still can’t figure out that socialist governments do not work. “
It’s human nature to want someone else to solve all the problems instead of taking personal responsibility.
Probably true, but it is unfortunate that it sometimes takes generations to figure out the problems...
Kind of like the Democrats today - just how long will it take?
Its a catch-22. A lot of the problems we face today are directly created by government. Then people clamor for more government to solve those problems.
Its job security for opportunistic politicians and the population at large falls right into it.
Mercy, isn’t that the truth! Of course most reasonable folks should see beyond that and vote government out but of course, that does not happen. Now that we have over 50% of the people being supported by Government, they will continue to vote for those that support them.
It’s of course caused by the old buy me vote and it will continue until the providers are gone. You can only have a government that gives things while there are those that give. I give it another 10 years or so at this rate and we will be another left wing dictatorship or worse...
It may be a catch-22 but it is going to happen much faster than we can imagine. Look at California... Those in need are going to drive out those that provide for those in need. This will expand to Texas and eventually other States until we are out-voted and essentially ungoverned.
Think Mexico - bribes will be the new governance...although it is now but under cover for the most part.
Yes,k a bit pessimistic of the future but it does seem to be coming true much faster than I imagined a few years ago.
Can’t we get The Fed to just print them up some ‘mucho dinero’?
Sorry, they are doing that now! Not sure that it will help the situation but it will temporarily make stock and bond buyers happy. As to the rest of us, not so much.
Just another way that we are losing the fight... They are buying off the businesses now, but how to buy off the public?
They keep saying that we are getting the benefit of growing 401K’s but just how many have 401K’s that actually have much value these days? Geez, we are going down a dark hole and we are just spectators.
We have friends stuck in Venezuela. So corrupt it would make a RAT blush. Food deliveries are robbed along the roads, vendors have just about disappeared, Jews have had their property stolen, dissidents have lost their jobs/pensions and you cannot take more than $250 out of the country.
Some of the gov elites have been more successful in getting money out. Some were able to get out a few years ago...live in S. Florida and Colombia.
Rumors are rampant that 0bama will cancel their visas and deport them back to that hell hole.
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