World Economic Forum:“Venezuela was once twelve times richer than China. What happened?”
31 Replies to “See No Socialism, Hear No Socialism”
The ‘S’ word seems to be missing in this article.
When I visited Venezuela a decade ago, I traded US dollars in the Caracas airport for 2.65 Bolivars.
Note that with the exchange rate shown at https://dolartoday.com the chavistas moved the decimal place 3 spots over in order to fight inflation. They referred to this as the founding of the “strong bolivar” ….
112,000,000. is the real exchange rate now, what is offered in Colombia for 1 Bolivar, compared to a decade ago.
The largest bolivar denomination is equal to 100,000. of the strong bolivars. A bit like having our dollar able to buy about $0.90 worth of goods. That is if those desired goods were available in Venezuela. Usually they’re not these days.
The devastation of Venezuela, falls directly on the decisions of Chavez to not allow the free exchange of money, and to spending multiple times of money that was available to the treasury, and to selling their debt at massive interest rates, and not reinvesting oil money on their own infrastructure, all this will bite them, Hard, in the coming year.
They don’t have anywhere close to the funds available to pay this debt due. No food to sustain the population, it’s mostly imported, and a tragedy of leftist politics let to run its course. The politics of hunger / starvation, as SDA’s maz2 has so often put it.
I fully expect the media in North America, to blame us. http://www.caracaschronicles.com
* $0.90 worth of goods, using our largest denomination paper. … in a land where a McDonalds hamburger would cost about +700,000. Bs.
and after Christmas, it’ll jump. The bolivar is expected to “gain” another 3 decimal places in 2018.
We could see this coming to CANADA soon with PM Sock Puppet as our leader. TPP and NAFTA down the tube, as PM Sock Puppet wants his own ideas INTERJECTED (you don’t start by preaching to other countries either) into the deal but NOT any of the THEIR ideas.
This article makes a serious mistake in attributing Venezuela’s collapse to drops in the price of oil. It that was true then every country relying heavily on oil (e.g. Saudi Arabia) would be in the same boat as Venezuela and yet they aren’t. Why? Socialism.
Some people are smarter than others. Some people work harder than others. Some people are smarter and work harder than others. When the government interferes with this law of nature, they prevent the smart and hard working people from being successful. If they do it long enough, the result is Venezuela.
I used to run a fairly large company with over $50 million in revenue and over 150 employees. I left to start my own company with 1 employee – me. I drove to Cambridge the other day to pick up some parts I designed myself. I sat down with the business owner and he started with “10 years ago I had 45 employees” and ended with “and now it’s just me and my kids and I wouldn’t change a thing”. Canada is heading down the Venezuela road.
Arthur brooks made an interesting observation a few days ago: the family unit is socialist: Wealth is redistributed from those to earn to those who need all the time.
The problem is that socialism doesn’t scale – anything larger than the family unit and the system becomes corrupt.
That article is a complete disappointment,never once mentioning the socialism that really caused the down fall of the economy.
Chavez tried to bully the industrial complex to pay exorbitant taxes to pay for his communist social programs,then ended by nationalizing the companies,but nowhere in the article does it mention that,just blames it all on non-diversification of the economy and falling oil prices.
If you are unwilling to put the “progressives” against the wall, then you get what you deserve.
I agree,completely vapid article.
Socialism, they ran out of other peoples money, paying off their pet parasites.
Socialism works great,we just did not do it right..
Theft and banditry left institutionalized ensure producers stop producing.
If I reap no reward from my work,I refuse to do it.
Canada is aping Venezuela,religiously copying every stupid virtue signal and vicious constriction of the individuals rights and freedoms.
A state that denies the individual has no citizens.
Just slaves.
Our kleptocracy fears and hates productive people and seeks to rob and cripple them at every opertunity.
Venezuela sits where we aspire to go, budgets balance themselves, we grow the economy from the heart out, ah,ah umm..Quantum Mathematics.
And most all of our self promoting “leaders” are just fine with our chosen path.
Investing in welfare, social science and political scientists..Fairness for all.
Well except for those dumb enough to attempt to build for the future.
The answer is Chavista socialism, but it’s actually so much more. Go back further. Venezuela used to be very free market in the 50s and I think early 60s. Then it got more welfar-ey. Growth slowed. Then it got a lot more so in the ’70s. They nationalized the oil industry. I forget his name but the Venezuelan in charge at the time was a darling of progs. And then it just spiralled in: growth got slower and slower. The welfare fed an underclass ‘on the hills’ in slums, and regulations and a lack of opportunity demotivated it and helped build that class. There’s a CATO Institute article from 1996 decrying Venezuela’s lack of reform in comparison to other LA countries. It predicted the rise of an authoritarian radical leftist ‘within a couple of decades’. Other than the timing, it was eerily prescient in calling what would happen ‘when the hills came down’.
No, Chavez has nothing without Sean Penn, Hollywood, Naomi Klien, and all the voters of Venezuala.
You also can’t forget the immigration problem it had with Colombians pouring into the country and populating the hills around Caracas. How many corrupt Clinton style political slobs now live in Miami? GREED Killed Venezuela!!!! America is lucky with the coming of Trump. Canada is stuck with a formally employed low level sock tucker.
PS Build a wall a Big wall!
As I sees it, even though both countries are commie/socialist whatever …. the Chinese are doing it much smarter than the idiots of Venezuela.
So what happened what a low IQ bus driver took over from a fat thief who destroyed the economy, now Maduro is destroying the society and finishing off what’s left of the economy.
These people are the role models for Justin Trudeau. So … given enough time, it will happen to Canada too.
“… the family unit is socialist …” Successful families do not redistribute wealth from those who earn to those who need all the time. Successful families are started by productive adults who are able to have children and invest in growing them into productive adults who can care for their ancestors and have their own children and invest in growing them, etc.
Socialism is for dysfunctional families.
It is a Christmas Miracle.
I am agreeing with UnMe. Socialism is destroying Venezuela. In the earlier part of the 20th Century, Socialism and Peronism also destroyed Argentina.
It is not just the low oil prices are hurting Venezuela’s exports. The Chavista Socialist Justice Warriors took over the state oil company and drove out the competent professional engineers and managers. Over the last decade, oil output has fallen, exacerbating the loss of revenue from low oil prices.
The exported oil quality is so bad, heavily contaminated with water, that it is being rejected or heavily discounted. The Venezuelan tankers are unable to deliver because they don’t run, or the hulls are so polluted by oil contamination that no ports will accept them.
Socialism turns everything to cr-p.
Can’t tell if retarded or for real.
“As I sees it, even though both countries are commie/socialist whatever …. the Chinese are doing it much smarter than the idiots of Venezuela.”
China is not remotely like Venezuela. China has some serious problems but it hasn’t been nationalizing or price-fixing basic goods.
The richest Venezuelan is Chavez’s Daughter.
She is a Billionaire. While Venezuelan men, women, and children are dying from malnutrition and lack of medicine.
Merry Christmas. Be Thankful you do not live in a Bolivaran Socialist Republic, and please pray for those that do.
read an article today which said the bus driver and his cohorts are looking for a safe exit, with all their $$$$$$. They probably see the armed revolution that is coming and want to get out rich, like every other damn socialist elite. Like Berknee sanders and his million dollar a year pay packet
Your first paragraph is exactly the socialism Gord described, wealth earners supporting others in the family. The roles change for individuals over time, but the family carries on. As far as investment, I doubt that many parents see it that way or operate that way. It’s love and duty. Any future returns are totally and fully enjoyed without having to deduct previous inconveniences.
Your second paragraph (I think you’ll agree) could be “Socialism creates dysfunctional families.”
A talking point in dealing with the left could be that conservatives are the ultimate socialists, supporting a strong nuclear family. (and more generous in charitable giving).
Until the kids are working the socialist analogy absolutely applies. And then as the parents become informed they are the beneficiaries of redistribution.
Not exactly true…..socialism FORCES people to look after others by force of the government. Families due so for other reasons.
No. They voted for it; they get to live the consequences of their poor life and electoral choices.
If people don’t get to die in vast numbers, how are they ever gonna learn? Spare the rod, spoil the child.
The concept is the same: from each according to their ability to each according to their need.
During the recent controversy raised in the last Saskatchewan budget to charge PST on the premiums of insurance products, I had the opportunity to meet with all of the leadership candidates and ask them their position on the tax. All of them agreed that it was a tax that essentially taxed individuals who acted responsibly and that this was unacceptable. Four of the five have agreed to remove it. One has not. She indicated to me that the tax did send the wrong message and was a disincentive to those acting responsibly (here’s the money quote) “but we need the money.” It’s ironic that such a sentiment exists here in a political candidate that is supposedly right of center. Those are words that I am sure came out of Maduro, Chavez, Stalin and every other socialist who tries to justify what is really out and out theft. If you think the Venezuela experience can’t happen here, think again.
” fully expect the media in North America, to blame us.”
Relax. They’ll just blame Trump.
“China is not remotely like Venezuela. China has some serious problems but it hasn’t been nationalizing or price-fixing basic goods.”
Because the People’s Republic of China isn’t a communist state and hasn’t been one for quite some time. Don’t be fooled by the red flags and the image of Mao in Tiananmen Square – that’s all national mythology now.
The PRC is a corporate state where every Chinese citizen works for the same corporation: “Brand China”.
you are too fvcking stupid for words. A family is an emotional construct, socialism is an ideological construct, not even close to being the same. It’s like a car and an aeroplane, both are for transportation, and one is not close to being as the other. Libtards like you do not do context worth siite
Huh? Didn’t Harpurrrrrrrrrr put all his eggs in one basket? According to the biased media, liberals CommieENDPees, Greentards and all opponents of HarperBushHitler, he did.
If that were the case, wouldn’t this country and many others, with developed Oil industries, be in as terrible shape as Spicoliland?
Crickets from the media and political opponents. A means to an end, lies, lies, lies
Sorry NME….but Family is much much more than just an Emotional Construct. And it is definitely Socialist in that the combined financial proceeds go to the the betterment of said Family…(for the most). It’s also socialist in that the originators of Family X, are the ones paying for the the spawn of Family X until they have the resources to leave said Family unit and strike out on their own.
As for Venezuela….I see IDENTICAL Socialist thinking right here in Alberta. Where Carbon taxation is nothing but..”We need the Money” aka Socialized theft. And where by closing down Coal, instituting “renewables”, said Socialists will destroy the economy of Alberta via ENERGY POVERTY. Once Rates hit a certain point (and it wont take much), NO one will invest here while current companies will in fact, flee to less onerous jurisdictions leaving a poor populace and rich (in comparison), Civil Servants. See Ontario for EXCELLENT Example.
Notley and her gang deserve one thing: A Concrete wall with hi speed lead going their way…The same goes for the twat in Ottawa…
“Over-reliance on oil was in many ways the countries biggest downfall.”
Apparently the Visual Capitalist is actually blind.
Watch for the next Visual Capitalist article where he explains that the USSR collapsed because they did not implement COmmunism properly. Oh and they were overly reliant on oil.
To say something like a family is socialist is so ignorant as to be unbelievable that anybody can think that though those that work for government have personal stake in it to enrich themselves so far as it lasts.
Family is a social construct of thousands of years of trial and error. Some societies still don’t have down.
Feudal societies like those in Afghanistan, do live in sort of socialist enclaves where the ruler rules with iron fist and is able to kill those that don’t conform, perhaps of necessity.
More civilized like the Hutterites, live in socialist realm based on religious consensus.
Members of a family must by necessity mutually agree to certain way of life. Children of course must obey the parents, at least which was the case until recent times, look where that it is leading. Parents must of necessity take care of children and show them the way.
There is more to the story as any grown up with children is able to say.
Socialism on the other hand is antihuman construct that pretends to do good. As anybody who knows anything from history of the 20th century can tell it is the most destructive system of government ever devised.
Socialism is enforced by gun, prison, the whole justice industry and governments of every shade to lesser and greater degree.
Human nature being what it is, every one person has their own set of standards and circumstances. Some want to rule over others. Others tell them to go and take a hike.
If you get more of those that get sucked in by the siren song of free stuff, you will eventually end up like socialist states of earlier times that knocked off the yoke of socialism relatively peacefully. Others, like it seems, Venezuela will end up in destruction and mayhem of death.
Homeless have their standard, they want to live the way they want, that’s why they don’t comply with the mores of the rest of the society. It always was and always will be that way.
The homeless are a feature of society not a result of anything.
Socialists cannot and will not do anything about it, they can mask it and pretend as all politicians that they will end it. They are the ball in political football. Socialism will pretend until there is no money to pretend, then it will be someone else’s fault.
There is more, gotta stop now.
The ‘S’ word seems to be missing in this article.
When I visited Venezuela a decade ago, I traded US dollars in the Caracas airport for 2.65 Bolivars.
Note that with the exchange rate shown at https://dolartoday.com the chavistas moved the decimal place 3 spots over in order to fight inflation. They referred to this as the founding of the “strong bolivar” ….
112,000,000. is the real exchange rate now, what is offered in Colombia for 1 Bolivar, compared to a decade ago.
The largest bolivar denomination is equal to 100,000. of the strong bolivars. A bit like having our dollar able to buy about $0.90 worth of goods. That is if those desired goods were available in Venezuela. Usually they’re not these days.
The devastation of Venezuela, falls directly on the decisions of Chavez to not allow the free exchange of money, and to spending multiple times of money that was available to the treasury, and to selling their debt at massive interest rates, and not reinvesting oil money on their own infrastructure, all this will bite them, Hard, in the coming year.
They don’t have anywhere close to the funds available to pay this debt due. No food to sustain the population, it’s mostly imported, and a tragedy of leftist politics let to run its course. The politics of hunger / starvation, as SDA’s maz2 has so often put it.
I fully expect the media in North America, to blame us.
http://www.caracaschronicles.com
* $0.90 worth of goods, using our largest denomination paper. … in a land where a McDonalds hamburger would cost about +700,000. Bs.
and after Christmas, it’ll jump. The bolivar is expected to “gain” another 3 decimal places in 2018.
We could see this coming to CANADA soon with PM Sock Puppet as our leader. TPP and NAFTA down the tube, as PM Sock Puppet wants his own ideas INTERJECTED (you don’t start by preaching to other countries either) into the deal but NOT any of the THEIR ideas.
This article makes a serious mistake in attributing Venezuela’s collapse to drops in the price of oil. It that was true then every country relying heavily on oil (e.g. Saudi Arabia) would be in the same boat as Venezuela and yet they aren’t. Why? Socialism.
Some people are smarter than others. Some people work harder than others. Some people are smarter and work harder than others. When the government interferes with this law of nature, they prevent the smart and hard working people from being successful. If they do it long enough, the result is Venezuela.
I used to run a fairly large company with over $50 million in revenue and over 150 employees. I left to start my own company with 1 employee – me. I drove to Cambridge the other day to pick up some parts I designed myself. I sat down with the business owner and he started with “10 years ago I had 45 employees” and ended with “and now it’s just me and my kids and I wouldn’t change a thing”. Canada is heading down the Venezuela road.
Arthur brooks made an interesting observation a few days ago: the family unit is socialist: Wealth is redistributed from those to earn to those who need all the time.
The problem is that socialism doesn’t scale – anything larger than the family unit and the system becomes corrupt.
That article is a complete disappointment,never once mentioning the socialism that really caused the down fall of the economy.
Chavez tried to bully the industrial complex to pay exorbitant taxes to pay for his communist social programs,then ended by nationalizing the companies,but nowhere in the article does it mention that,just blames it all on non-diversification of the economy and falling oil prices.
If you are unwilling to put the “progressives” against the wall, then you get what you deserve.
I agree,completely vapid article.
Socialism, they ran out of other peoples money, paying off their pet parasites.
Socialism works great,we just did not do it right..
Theft and banditry left institutionalized ensure producers stop producing.
If I reap no reward from my work,I refuse to do it.
Canada is aping Venezuela,religiously copying every stupid virtue signal and vicious constriction of the individuals rights and freedoms.
A state that denies the individual has no citizens.
Just slaves.
Our kleptocracy fears and hates productive people and seeks to rob and cripple them at every opertunity.
Venezuela sits where we aspire to go, budgets balance themselves, we grow the economy from the heart out, ah,ah umm..Quantum Mathematics.
And most all of our self promoting “leaders” are just fine with our chosen path.
Investing in welfare, social science and political scientists..Fairness for all.
Well except for those dumb enough to attempt to build for the future.
The answer is Chavista socialism, but it’s actually so much more. Go back further. Venezuela used to be very free market in the 50s and I think early 60s. Then it got more welfar-ey. Growth slowed. Then it got a lot more so in the ’70s. They nationalized the oil industry. I forget his name but the Venezuelan in charge at the time was a darling of progs. And then it just spiralled in: growth got slower and slower. The welfare fed an underclass ‘on the hills’ in slums, and regulations and a lack of opportunity demotivated it and helped build that class. There’s a CATO Institute article from 1996 decrying Venezuela’s lack of reform in comparison to other LA countries. It predicted the rise of an authoritarian radical leftist ‘within a couple of decades’. Other than the timing, it was eerily prescient in calling what would happen ‘when the hills came down’.
No, Chavez has nothing without Sean Penn, Hollywood, Naomi Klien, and all the voters of Venezuala.
You also can’t forget the immigration problem it had with Colombians pouring into the country and populating the hills around Caracas. How many corrupt Clinton style political slobs now live in Miami? GREED Killed Venezuela!!!! America is lucky with the coming of Trump. Canada is stuck with a formally employed low level sock tucker.
PS Build a wall a Big wall!
As I sees it, even though both countries are commie/socialist whatever …. the Chinese are doing it much smarter than the idiots of Venezuela.
So what happened what a low IQ bus driver took over from a fat thief who destroyed the economy, now Maduro is destroying the society and finishing off what’s left of the economy.
These people are the role models for Justin Trudeau. So … given enough time, it will happen to Canada too.
“… the family unit is socialist …” Successful families do not redistribute wealth from those who earn to those who need all the time. Successful families are started by productive adults who are able to have children and invest in growing them into productive adults who can care for their ancestors and have their own children and invest in growing them, etc.
Socialism is for dysfunctional families.
It is a Christmas Miracle.
I am agreeing with UnMe. Socialism is destroying Venezuela. In the earlier part of the 20th Century, Socialism and Peronism also destroyed Argentina.
It is not just the low oil prices are hurting Venezuela’s exports. The Chavista Socialist Justice Warriors took over the state oil company and drove out the competent professional engineers and managers. Over the last decade, oil output has fallen, exacerbating the loss of revenue from low oil prices.
The exported oil quality is so bad, heavily contaminated with water, that it is being rejected or heavily discounted. The Venezuelan tankers are unable to deliver because they don’t run, or the hulls are so polluted by oil contamination that no ports will accept them.
Socialism turns everything to cr-p.
Can’t tell if retarded or for real.
“As I sees it, even though both countries are commie/socialist whatever …. the Chinese are doing it much smarter than the idiots of Venezuela.”
China is not remotely like Venezuela. China has some serious problems but it hasn’t been nationalizing or price-fixing basic goods.
The richest Venezuelan is Chavez’s Daughter.
She is a Billionaire. While Venezuelan men, women, and children are dying from malnutrition and lack of medicine.
Merry Christmas. Be Thankful you do not live in a Bolivaran Socialist Republic, and please pray for those that do.
read an article today which said the bus driver and his cohorts are looking for a safe exit, with all their $$$$$$. They probably see the armed revolution that is coming and want to get out rich, like every other damn socialist elite. Like Berknee sanders and his million dollar a year pay packet
Your first paragraph is exactly the socialism Gord described, wealth earners supporting others in the family. The roles change for individuals over time, but the family carries on. As far as investment, I doubt that many parents see it that way or operate that way. It’s love and duty. Any future returns are totally and fully enjoyed without having to deduct previous inconveniences.
Your second paragraph (I think you’ll agree) could be “Socialism creates dysfunctional families.”
A talking point in dealing with the left could be that conservatives are the ultimate socialists, supporting a strong nuclear family. (and more generous in charitable giving).
Until the kids are working the socialist analogy absolutely applies. And then as the parents become informed they are the beneficiaries of redistribution.
Not exactly true…..socialism FORCES people to look after others by force of the government. Families due so for other reasons.
No. They voted for it; they get to live the consequences of their poor life and electoral choices.
If people don’t get to die in vast numbers, how are they ever gonna learn? Spare the rod, spoil the child.
The concept is the same: from each according to their ability to each according to their need.
During the recent controversy raised in the last Saskatchewan budget to charge PST on the premiums of insurance products, I had the opportunity to meet with all of the leadership candidates and ask them their position on the tax. All of them agreed that it was a tax that essentially taxed individuals who acted responsibly and that this was unacceptable. Four of the five have agreed to remove it. One has not. She indicated to me that the tax did send the wrong message and was a disincentive to those acting responsibly (here’s the money quote) “but we need the money.” It’s ironic that such a sentiment exists here in a political candidate that is supposedly right of center. Those are words that I am sure came out of Maduro, Chavez, Stalin and every other socialist who tries to justify what is really out and out theft. If you think the Venezuela experience can’t happen here, think again.
” fully expect the media in North America, to blame us.”
Relax. They’ll just blame Trump.
“China is not remotely like Venezuela. China has some serious problems but it hasn’t been nationalizing or price-fixing basic goods.”
Because the People’s Republic of China isn’t a communist state and hasn’t been one for quite some time. Don’t be fooled by the red flags and the image of Mao in Tiananmen Square – that’s all national mythology now.
The PRC is a corporate state where every Chinese citizen works for the same corporation: “Brand China”.
you are too fvcking stupid for words. A family is an emotional construct, socialism is an ideological construct, not even close to being the same. It’s like a car and an aeroplane, both are for transportation, and one is not close to being as the other. Libtards like you do not do context worth siite
Huh? Didn’t Harpurrrrrrrrrr put all his eggs in one basket? According to the biased media, liberals CommieENDPees, Greentards and all opponents of HarperBushHitler, he did.
If that were the case, wouldn’t this country and many others, with developed Oil industries, be in as terrible shape as Spicoliland?
Crickets from the media and political opponents. A means to an end, lies, lies, lies
Sorry NME….but Family is much much more than just an Emotional Construct. And it is definitely Socialist in that the combined financial proceeds go to the the betterment of said Family…(for the most). It’s also socialist in that the originators of Family X, are the ones paying for the the spawn of Family X until they have the resources to leave said Family unit and strike out on their own.
As for Venezuela….I see IDENTICAL Socialist thinking right here in Alberta. Where Carbon taxation is nothing but..”We need the Money” aka Socialized theft. And where by closing down Coal, instituting “renewables”, said Socialists will destroy the economy of Alberta via ENERGY POVERTY. Once Rates hit a certain point (and it wont take much), NO one will invest here while current companies will in fact, flee to less onerous jurisdictions leaving a poor populace and rich (in comparison), Civil Servants. See Ontario for EXCELLENT Example.
Notley and her gang deserve one thing: A Concrete wall with hi speed lead going their way…The same goes for the twat in Ottawa…
“Over-reliance on oil was in many ways the countries biggest downfall.”
Apparently the Visual Capitalist is actually blind.
Watch for the next Visual Capitalist article where he explains that the USSR collapsed because they did not implement COmmunism properly. Oh and they were overly reliant on oil.
To say something like a family is socialist is so ignorant as to be unbelievable that anybody can think that though those that work for government have personal stake in it to enrich themselves so far as it lasts.
Family is a social construct of thousands of years of trial and error. Some societies still don’t have down.
Feudal societies like those in Afghanistan, do live in sort of socialist enclaves where the ruler rules with iron fist and is able to kill those that don’t conform, perhaps of necessity.
More civilized like the Hutterites, live in socialist realm based on religious consensus.
Members of a family must by necessity mutually agree to certain way of life. Children of course must obey the parents, at least which was the case until recent times, look where that it is leading. Parents must of necessity take care of children and show them the way.
There is more to the story as any grown up with children is able to say.
Socialism on the other hand is antihuman construct that pretends to do good. As anybody who knows anything from history of the 20th century can tell it is the most destructive system of government ever devised.
Socialism is enforced by gun, prison, the whole justice industry and governments of every shade to lesser and greater degree.
Human nature being what it is, every one person has their own set of standards and circumstances. Some want to rule over others. Others tell them to go and take a hike.
If you get more of those that get sucked in by the siren song of free stuff, you will eventually end up like socialist states of earlier times that knocked off the yoke of socialism relatively peacefully. Others, like it seems, Venezuela will end up in destruction and mayhem of death.
Homeless have their standard, they want to live the way they want, that’s why they don’t comply with the mores of the rest of the society. It always was and always will be that way.
The homeless are a feature of society not a result of anything.
Socialists cannot and will not do anything about it, they can mask it and pretend as all politicians that they will end it. They are the ball in political football. Socialism will pretend until there is no money to pretend, then it will be someone else’s fault.
There is more, gotta stop now.