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Venezuela seizes General Motors plant as property of the state
Hotair ^ | 04/20/2017 | Jazz Shaw

Posted on 04/20/2017 8:17:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

This news broke overnight and it undoubtedly comes as a shock to anyone who hasn’t been paying to socialism in general and the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in particular. The government of Venezuela came in and seized control of the General Motors plant in the city of Valencia, taking over the property, assets and accounts. The automotive giant responded by saying that they were immediately halting operations. (CNN)

General Motors says it will immediately halt operations in Venezuela after its plant in the country was unexpectedly seized by authorities.

GM (GM) described the takeover as an “illegal judicial seizure of its assets.”

The automaker said the seizure showed a “total disregard” of its legal rights. It said that authorities had removed assets including cars from company facilities.

“[GM] strongly rejects the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities and will vigorously take all legal actions, within and outside of Venezuela, to defend its rights,” it said in a statement.

GM’s Venezuelan operation was already pretty much at the point of stagnation. Productivity was approaching zero because their currency had collapsed and they couldn’t order parts to keep the lines running. Also, the domestic market for cars wasn’t exactly booming because their potential customers have money which is basically worthless and they’re mostly too busy looking for scraps of food to worry about a new set of wheels.

If nothing else, this incident will provide an enlightening, educational moment for the rest of the world. It’s a given that this is bad news for General Motors, for the workers there… let’s just say it. This is bad news for everyone except Maduro and his cronies. But it also serves to further pull away the mask, allowing the rest of the world to see what’s actually going on. So gather around, kids, because we’re not only seeing how socialism ends (and it always ends this way) but also how the socialist machinery operates through the various phases of its life cycle.

Originally, the government tolerates the presence of foreign manufacturing entities such as General Motors to fill needs they have which can’t be handled domestically. (GM has been there for roughly seven decades.) It’s not that the Venezuelan people are incapable of innovation or creation… there’s simply no motivation for them to strive for success. Anything they create simply becomes the property of the state anyway, so the hard working, innovative person doesn’t realize much more success than the guy who can barely keep his eyes open to show up for his job sweeping the sidewalk. There’s no point to being particularly innovative.

So companies such as GM are allowed to go to work. But once the system inevitably begins to implode, the tyrant in charge begins looking for new resources to grab. In the name of the socialist concept wherein everything “belongs to the people” he seizes the GM plant. They take the cars which are there to hand out to high ranking party officials and divide up the assets while demanding that the workers get back to producing automobiles. This is, of course, impossible because they don’t have the parts to do it and the people who actually know how to run things are fleeing.

These are the fruits of socialism. It’s a humanitarian disaster to be sure, but it’s also a teachable moment. Watch and learn.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: generalmotors; gm; governmentmotors; maduro; venezuela; yesterday
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1 posted on 04/20/2017 8:17:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Why is any sane multi-national with stockholders continuing operations in this country?


2 posted on 04/20/2017 8:20:16 AM PDT by PittsburghAfterDark (The American media: We do what the Soviet media did without the guns to our head.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I wonder if GM will still pay the workers’ wages?


3 posted on 04/20/2017 8:21:50 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob
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To: PittsburghAfterDark

RE: Why is any sane multi-national with stockholders continuing operations in this country?

GM has been in that country for DECADES.

What should the CEO have done when Chavez took over? Close it? It survived 10 years of Chavez and several years of Maduro, this was unexpected.

This should be a wake up call to other foreign companies to PLAN for anything similar.


4 posted on 04/20/2017 8:22:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Ahhhh, the irony of it. Government Motors is seized by the government and GM is outraged...


5 posted on 04/20/2017 8:22:32 AM PDT by fatez (Ya, well, you know, that's just your opinion man...)
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To: All

Click The Pic To Donate



6 posted on 04/20/2017 8:23:38 AM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo (MAGA!!!)
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To: Cowboy Bob

RE: I wonder if GM will still pay the workers’ wages?

If Venezuela seized ( as in take hold of suddenly and forcibly), then I assume the government owns it now. THEY pay the workers ( if they have the money ).


7 posted on 04/20/2017 8:23:50 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

This is just another phase in the country’s death spiral. This will not go on indefinitely.


8 posted on 04/20/2017 8:25:24 AM PDT by Mr. Douglas (Best. Election. EVER!)
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To: SeekAndFind; Army Air Corps; GOPsterinMA
General Motors has learned the first lesson of dealing with Communists.

You only have what you can defend.

9 posted on 04/20/2017 8:25:27 AM PDT by KC_Lion (Proud Keeper of the Sarah Palin and New First Lady Melania Ping Lists. Let me know if you want on.)
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To: SeekAndFind

What’s survival? Not being taken over by the government?

They did it to the oil companies, they did it to the food producers, they did it to the grocers.

They couldn’t order parts, they had no market. Why would they stay?

Is it something now that companies should just survive?

This is the equal of the left thinking companies exist to provide health care for their workers.


10 posted on 04/20/2017 8:26:04 AM PDT by PittsburghAfterDark (The American media: We do what the Soviet media did without the guns to our head.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Venezuela....where the UAW is the government.


11 posted on 04/20/2017 8:26:05 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SeekAndFind

Given how things have gone in Venezuela the past five years I don’t think this was unexpected. Or at least, it should not have been.


12 posted on 04/20/2017 8:26:31 AM PDT by henkster (Orwell, Rand and Huxley would not be proud of our society, but they'd have no trouble recognizing it)
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To: SeekAndFind
Good luck running the plant!

13 posted on 04/20/2017 8:26:44 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Kill: TWITTER, FACEBOOK, CNN, ESPN, NFL, NPR)
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To: SeekAndFind

Congress needs to immediately place a trade embargo on Venezuela for the exact same reason that there’s a trade embargo on Cuba. They stole American property and that should be intolerable.


14 posted on 04/20/2017 8:26:48 AM PDT by MeganC (Democrat by birth, Republican by default, conservative by principle.)
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To: fatez
Ahhhh, the irony of it. Government Motors is seized by the government and GM is outraged...

Bingo!!

15 posted on 04/20/2017 8:27:12 AM PDT by RatRipper (The biggest threat to US national security is our government and those in it.)
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To: PittsburghAfterDark

“You know damn well what I came here for!” he snapped. “I’ve heard some incredible things about our trains in Mexico.”

“What things?”

“What sort of rolling stock are you using down there?”

“The worst I could find.”

“You admit that?”

“I’ve stated it on paper in the reports I sent you.”

“Is it true that you’re using wood-burning locomotives?”

“Eddie found them for me in somebody’s abandoned roundhouse down in Louisiana. He couldn’t even learn the name of the railroad.”

“And that’s what you’re running as Taggart trains?”

“Yes.”

“What in hell’s the big idea? What’s going on? I want to know what’s going on!”

She spoke evenly, looking straight at him. “If you want to know, I have left nothing but junk on the San Sebastian Line, and as little of that as possible. I have moved everything that could be moved — switch engines, shop tools, even typewriters and mirrors — out of Mexico.”

“Why in blazes?”

“So that the looters won’t have too much to loot when they nationalize the line.”


16 posted on 04/20/2017 8:27:14 AM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten percent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: PittsburghAfterDark

Why isn’t Trump arming and training rebels yet?


17 posted on 04/20/2017 8:27:26 AM PDT by Eleutheria5 (“If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.)
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To: SeekAndFind

,,,,,, another factory mus come home ,,,,, more winning !


18 posted on 04/20/2017 8:28:20 AM PDT by Lionheartusa1 ()-: ISIS is Islam without the lipstick :-()
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To: SeekAndFind

No simpatico here.

But what is Venezuela going to do with it?....................


19 posted on 04/20/2017 8:28:31 AM PDT by Red Badger (Profanity is the sound of an ignorant mind trying to express itself.............)
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To: Mr. Douglas

It will continue as long as Cubans run the police and military force...


20 posted on 04/20/2017 8:28:52 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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