Venezuela: How the Socialist Paradise Turned into Debt and Hyperinflation Hell

They call them bachaqueros. Venezuela’s army of black market shoppers descend every day at dawn outside Caracas’s biggest stores.
Named after the bachaco leaf-cutting ant that carries several times its weight, the men and women queue alongside hundreds of other Venezuelans for food, nappies, milk and other basic goods.
They stand for hours in the blistering heat, motivated not by hunger, but profit.
Half-empty shelves in most shops means goods bought at government-controlled prices can be sold at a significant mark-up.
“It happens more frequently now,” sighs Juan Carlos Bacalhau, a marketing manager who lives in the Venezuelan capital.
“There’s a lady that I pay 1,500 bolivars a day to clean my house, but recently she told me she’d rather queue and buy and sell products than work for me.”
It wasn’t always this way. Diego Moya-Ocampos, senior political risk analyst at IHS, says the current crisis is the result of years of “economic mismanagement” by the ruling socialist party.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...cialist-paradise-turned-into-debt-and-hyperi/

What is it with the left in this country, do they have to be hit over the head with a 2x4 to understand Socialism always fails? But it never fails in their eyes, they just come up with a new twist, a catchy name and try their hardest to wrap it up in a prettier package. Wasn't it Albert Einstein that said when you do the same thing over and over and expect a different result, you're insane!

 

But wait, America's socialism will be different. LOL! It's so easy to become the democrat nominee, just promise them a bunch of free (*)(*)(*)(*) and they'll vote for you. They're not smart enough in math to figure out that never works.

 

Exactly, Bernie isn't one of those socialists that failed, he'a a democrat socialist! LMAO

 

I have a friend whose in-laws live there. Country has gone to hell in a handcart.

 

I love it. They voted for it. Let them deal with it.

 

According to certain currency cranks here, the US survives socialism because it is "developed." It just means they have a lot more wealth to burn through.

 

Have they considered just printing more money?

 

Sooner or later this country won't be able to sustain all the entitlements and think it' coming soon if we keep this left wing course of failure.

 

Venezuela is a petro state. They derive their revenue from oil. Oil decreased dramatically over the last five years. Believe it or not, Venezuela generates its electricity from hydro electric dams. They are in severe drought. In fact, water levels have dropped so low that they cannot generate anything.

Their problems have nothing to do with socialism.

 

Not being able to criticize or vote out the current officials also makes a big difference. Checks and balances make a difference. The range of countries that get called "socialist" by us are in reality very different countries.

 

They ran out of money to print more money. https://fee.org/articles/venezuela-cant-afford-to-print-more-money/

 

It has everything to do with the lack of foresight that is common to socialism and central planning. Venezuela had a sovereign wealth fund, and Chavez eviscerated it. As oil was going up, he not only wiped out the fund, he stopped building it up as every other oil-dependent nation or US state has been doing. Everyone knows oil is volatile, so why not the socialists in Venezuela, who are supposedly, excellent central planners?

No, they spend and spend in the belief that wealth is created through spending, and when the chickens come home to roost, there is no long term investment and savings to carry them through.

 

Actually, central planning is key to a successful socialistic state. It's what made everyone in Norway a millionaire.

 

Norway is globalist, favors free trade, and is resistant to protectionist measures. That's not very socialist. For the wealth fund, they've done one thing right in a country that is rich in a resource that has gone through a long term boom. It remains to be seen if they will transition to something different. They might even have done better if it were not a state-run enterprise, as bureaucracy tends to slow down decision making.

 

All of the Scandinavian countries are socialist. Norway is too. I think that you likely don't understand what socialism is at all.

 

How about this. A hamburger costs $170.00 there. Drudge has the story up.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-where-hamburger-officially-170-184605711.html?ref=gs

 

That probably won't happen. Obama (or Hillary) will invite the entire population of Venezuela to move here, where they will subsequently vote for the same things that screwed up their own country. The Democratic Party is counting on the impoverished Hispanic socialist vote as their fastest growing demographic.

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Do those Scandinavian countries have Governments that control the means of production? No private property rights in those countries?

Sounds like you're the one who doesn't understand socialism, and that's really funny, considering you are a socialist.

 

So it's your contention that the means of production are entirely, or mostly, in the hands of the workers?

I think you are confusing socialism with social democracy. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, etc. et al are market economies. They are not planned. In many ways, they are more economically free than the US, especially in international trade. They are among the most globalized countries in the world.

 

It boggles the mind that anyone would endorse a socialist government when the failings are consistent. It again proves that liberals are all about feelings and reality doesn't exist

 

It's not true socialism, or something.

 

Albert Einstein was a socialist, genius. And again, for the umpteenth time: there is a global economic crisis.

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Einstein.htm

 

If you read a few more lines from your source you'll see the actual price for hamburger is $1.70.

 

Hmm, if the problem was just the low price of oil, why aren't all petro states at the brink of collapse? The real reason is the corruption that accompanies socialism. for example, Hugo Chavez's daugher is the richest woman in Venezuela, with an approximate wealth a year ago of $4.2 billion dollars.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ela-s-richest-woman-according-new-report.html

 

A lot of petro-states had large currency reserves and/or more diversification than Venezuela; Venezuela's other big exports were all commodities, and their prices have been rock-bottom since the China slowdown first started (they haven't really been high since the early 2000s, actually). But yeah, the corruption of excessively interventionist and badly-managed capitalism is a massive issue too.

 

Cant be a global economic crisis, the left swears our economy is doing great under Oduma