I am requesting commenters to read the whole thing before commenting.
Human nature. That’s how.
L
A communist crony capitalist system hooked on ever higher oil prices undone by fracking.
I remember listening to NPR singing Chavez’s praises, bunch of CPUSA scumbags.
Is it possible to read the article without registering? There are enough passwords in my life.
Two paragraphs would just about cover this story.
A hugh and series breach of FReeper SOP. And a highly unrealistic expectation.
But no worry; I found the link was not navigable to the article.
They listened to their democrats.
20,000 of the 35,000 oil workers fired, many moving to Colombia to boost that country's production by five times. A steel industry that produced 4.5 million tons of steel with 5,000 workers that now has 22,000 workers producing 200,000 tons of steel. The list goes on.
Most damning is this statistic: to measure hunger in an exchange-neutral fashion they calculated the amount of calories a minimum wage family could acquire in 2012 - 55,000 - and contrasted it with that same figure today - 7000. It's that bad. That's why people are starving.
I would recommend anyone wishing to read this excellent article without registering to approach it through a Google search of the title. It's worth the effort.
Excellent article that explains the economic collapse but does not explain why Chavez came into power.
I lived and worked in Venezuela in the mid 70s. It was a lovely nation with the highest standard of living in South America. Virtually all government institutions were corrupt. This corruption expressed its self in disgust for the government. A gifted populist speaker Chavez was able to parley this anger into a legitimate electoral victory. He also won a second election but the legitimacy of that election is in doubt. I think he actually lost. The electoral process was not honest.
Without doubt his anointed successor, Maduro did not win his election. It was totally 100% fraudulent. The people of Venezuela did not elect Maduro. A corrupt election process instilled Maduro as President.
Chavez was a Marxist and quickly went to work stacking the Supreme Court so he could pass any laws he desired. At that point Venezuela was doomed.
When I lived in Venezuela I could go to the super market and buy anything I wanted at a good price. Today people beg for bread.
Today Venezuela is nothing but Marxist tyranny and the corruption far exceeds the corruption of the past.
ps
The original Constitution of Venezuela was modeled on the Constitution of the United States. There was one fatal error in that Constitution. It did not have the second amendment. For this error the people of Venezuela suffer and fear their government. Their fear is most justified.
I read it and is very accurate. See my post 17 for additional insight on Venezuela.
Did you live in Venezuela as I did? It was a very good place before Chavez. As mentioned it was corrupt but no more corrupt than our nation.
How did VZ get to this point? Socialism! Falling oil prices sped up the decay, but any country that turns to socialism is doomed to fail. I visited VZ six months before Chavez took power. It was very nice by Latin standards. No more.
Like so many other countries down there, it’s the lack of a third choice in politics. On one side, you have the Rojos. On the other, the Baxters. Fascists vs. fascists—all socialism and nothing in between. Either side will spend big (big government spending) and rule tyrannically, but one side will usually be more in favor of globalism and claim that it is less socialist than the other. The global way of doing things works well, until the lack of local manufacturing, balance of payments deficits and government debts catch up. Default results. Regardless of which side is in power, the other side suffers. Seems like it never ends.