- Joined
- Jul 19, 2012
- Messages
- 14,185
- Reaction score
- 8,767
- Location
- Houston
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Libertarian
Venezuela has run out of food, medicines, and now it's running out of gasoline.
Chavez started by expanding government services to poor people, setting up neighborhood clinics. Then he moved to nationalize industries thinking that his apparatachics could run them. But they couldn't and so ran all of them into the ground, including the oil industry. The oil prices fell. The government printed too much money and inflation became severe. Imports became too expensive. At some point in the path to full socialism the people will stop the process if a country remains democratic. They will only go so far. That's why socialists dispense with democracy and become authoritarian, then become more and more oppressive trying to reach the socialist utopia that never materializes. Everyone but the elite just suffers and has to try to escape the country if they can.
The Maduro government also canceled the last democratic election. Not that they were democratic in the first place. The vote was not secret. Officials consult the voter rolls to see who will get jobs or assistance.
Chavez started by expanding government services to poor people, setting up neighborhood clinics. Then he moved to nationalize industries thinking that his apparatachics could run them. But they couldn't and so ran all of them into the ground, including the oil industry. The oil prices fell. The government printed too much money and inflation became severe. Imports became too expensive. At some point in the path to full socialism the people will stop the process if a country remains democratic. They will only go so far. That's why socialists dispense with democracy and become authoritarian, then become more and more oppressive trying to reach the socialist utopia that never materializes. Everyone but the elite just suffers and has to try to escape the country if they can.
The Maduro government also canceled the last democratic election. Not that they were democratic in the first place. The vote was not secret. Officials consult the voter rolls to see who will get jobs or assistance.