Chronicles in Socialist Success Stories - Venezuela Endlessly Circles the Drain

[Ford]

Am I the only one who doesn't understand why these posts keep popping up? Yes, Venezuala has serious economic issues. Money was squandered, external investment gone. It seems like an extrapolation is being attempted... see! Socialism is bad... therefore minimum wage in the US is bad.

They keep popping up because some of our far-left residents used to keep crowing about how Venezuela was doing.

How long ago was that?

Granted I've only been here since 2010, but I don't recall any "ha ha, capitalists! Venezuela is kicking ass" posts in the last five years.

 

[angelo]

Am I the only one who doesn't understand why these posts keep popping up? Yes, Venezuala has serious economic issues. Money was squandered, external investment gone. It seems like an extrapolation is being attempted... see! Socialism is bad... therefore minimum wage in the US is bad.

They keep popping up because some of our far-left residents used to keep crowing about how Venezuela was doing. There isn't a direct reference to the old stuff because that would class as calling-out and be edited.

Chasing out major multinational companies was/is a bad idea!

 

[Bacillus anthracis]

They keep popping up because some of our far-left residents used to keep crowing about how Venezuela was doing.

How long ago was that?

Granted I've only been here since 2010, but I don't recall any "ha ha, capitalists! Venezuela is kicking ass" posts in the last five years.

I've been around under one name or another since 2002, and trust me, that shit was all over the place. But whatever.

What I want to know is why the U.S., with it's absolute refusal to get the fuck off oil hasn't drummed up an adequate reason to go occupy Venezuela. You have oil, gold, and a population considerably less hostile than that in the ME. Plus it's way more scenic and all the hawks could look forward to movies about modern jungle warfare.

I mean, come on, what the fuck? Get it going.

Stupid Obama.

 

[Keith&Co.]

What I want to know is why the U.S., with it's absolute refusal to get the fuck off oil hasn't drummed up an adequate reason to go occupy Venezuela.

Probably because we don't want that much of our Army that close to Columbia.
Guy's'll be smuggling duffel bags full of customs-free coffee back and forth on every supply flight, every personnel transport....

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Am I the only one who doesn't understand why these posts keep popping up? Yes, Venezuala has serious economic issues. Money was squandered, external investment gone. It seems like an extrapolation is being attempted... see! Socialism is bad... therefore minimum wage in the US is bad.

They keep popping up because some of our far-left residents used to keep crowing about how Venezuela was doing. There isn't a direct reference to the old stuff because that would class as calling-out and be edited.

I thought some people were crowing about how the W Admin supported the attempted assassination of Chavez and the coup... and announcing support for the new government a tad bit early.

 

[dismal]

How long ago was that?

Granted I've only been here since 2010, but I don't recall any "ha ha, capitalists! Venezuela is kicking ass" posts in the last five years.

I've been around under one name or another since 2002, and trust me, that shit was all over the place. But whatever.

What I want to know is why the U.S., with it's absolute refusal to get the fuck off oil hasn't drummed up an adequate reason to go occupy Venezuela. You have oil, gold, and a population considerably less hostile than that in the ME. Plus it's way more scenic and all the hawks could look forward to movies about modern jungle warfare.

I mean, come on, what the fuck? Get it going.

Stupid Obama.

They came up with this clever way to get Venezuelan oil instead: buy it.

Technically for the government it was more "get out of the way" since private citizens are the ones who buy it.

 

[untermensche]

.

Botswana's not bad. Botswana kicks ass.

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Perhaps a country that hasn't been run by oil industry nationalizing socialists for most of the last century would be a better example of capitalism run amok?

I thought socialism was nationalization of production?

The nationalization of resources is just wise and fair.

But of course some oppose those things.

You mean like anarchists?

We are miles from Anarchism.

All that is possible presently is to try to make capitalism less destructive.

We are losing that battle.

Since we are miles from anarchism anarchist love nationalizing things. No question mark.

Again, all we can do is try to make capitalism less destructive.

And nationalization of resources is a method to do that.

 

[dismal]

.

Botswana's not bad. Botswana kicks ass.

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Perhaps a country that hasn't been run by oil industry nationalizing socialists for most of the last century would be a better example of capitalism run amok?

I thought socialism was nationalization of production?

The nationalization of resources is just wise and fair.

But of course some oppose those things.

You mean like anarchists?

We are miles from Anarchism.

All that is possible presently is to try to make capitalism less destructive.

We are losing that battle.

Since we are miles from anarchism anarchist love nationalizing things. No question mark.

Again, all we can do is try to make capitalism less destructive.

And nationalization of resources is a method to do that.

It's just amusing when your resident anarchist is always the first to leap to the defense of sprawling heavy handed totalitarian government.

 

[untermensche]

It's just amusing when your resident anarchist is always the first to leap to the defense of sprawling heavy handed totalitarian government.

I know too much history to buy your bullshit.

What is it you support in Venezuela?

A return to the pre-Chavez exploitation of millions, no opportunity for millions, based on race?

 

[dismal]

What is it you support in Venezuela?

Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, fair elections, respect for property rights, respect for business, a return of incentives for actually producing things, reasonable fiscal policy, reasonable monetary policy, leaders who do not repeatedly commit well known and predictable economic errors like price controls that cause nothing but misery among the population, less murder and kidnapping, less corruption and cronyism, more international beauty queens.

 

[untermensche]

What is it you support in Venezuela?

Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, fair elections, respect for property rights, respect for business, a return of incentives for actually producing things, reasonable fiscal policy, reasonable monetary policy, leaders who do not repeatedly commit well known and predictable economic errors like price controls that cause nothing but misery among the population, less murder and kidnapping, less corruption and cronyism, more international beauty queens.

It's a shame more American's didn't support those things before Chavez.

Because the suppression of rights is what gave Venezuela Chavez.

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[dismal]

Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, fair elections, respect for property rights, respect for business, a return of incentives for actually producing things, reasonable fiscal policy, reasonable monetary policy, leaders who do not repeatedly commit well known and predictable economic errors like price controls that cause nothing but misery among the population, less murder and kidnapping, less corruption and cronyism, more international beauty queens.

It's a shame more American's didn't support those things before Chavez.

Because the suppression of rights is what gave Venezuela Chavez.

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Well, I guess I ain't most Americans before Chavez.

 

[untermensche]

It's a shame more American's didn't support those things before Chavez.

Because the suppression of rights is what gave Venezuela Chavez.

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Well, I guess I ain't most Americans before Chavez.

I suspect at the time you were.

Nobody in the US gave two shits about the massive repression and exploitation of racial minorities by whites in Venezuela.

I suppose because it reminded them of home so much.

 

[Derec]

Because the suppression of rights is what gave Venezuela Chavez.

Oil prices well below $20/bbl and naive, impressionable electorate is what gave Venezuela Chavez.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

This.

 

[untermensche]

Because the suppression of rights is what gave Venezuela Chavez.

Oil prices well below $20/bbl and naive, impressionable electorate is what gave Venezuela Chavez.

He won four elections.

That's pretty naive.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Oil prices well below $20/bbl and naive, impressionable electorate is what gave Venezuela Chavez.

He won four elections.

That's pretty naive.

He won one election. The elections after that weren't fair, who knows if he would have actually won them.

(For example, a simple dodge--file criminal charges against your opponent. Do nothing else so they have no chance to clear themselves. You can't be elected if you are facing charges. Thus the government has a de-facto veto over any candidate.)

 

[Tom Sawyer]

(For example, a simple dodge--file criminal charges against your opponent. Do nothing else so they have no chance to clear themselves. You can't be elected if you are facing charges. Thus the government has a de-facto veto over any candidate.)

I don't want to be praising Chavez, but that's actually pretty clever. If I ever get around to enacting my evil plan to crush humanity under my iron fist, I'm totally stealing that move and then executing anyone who tries to say that I didn't come up with it myself.

 

[untermensche]

He won four elections.

That's pretty naive.

He won one election. The elections after that weren't fair, who knows if he would have actually won them.

(For example, a simple dodge--file criminal charges against your opponent. Do nothing else so they have no chance to clear themselves. You can't be elected if you are facing charges. Thus the government has a de-facto veto over any candidate.)

He won his elections fairer than GW Bush did.

 

[angelo]

Oil prices well below $20/bbl and naive, impressionable electorate is what gave Venezuela Chavez.

He won four elections.

That's pretty naive.

It was fun while it lasted, but notice how by the end he was despised by the majority and would have surely lost a fair election next time around. It was realised by most that no matter what blokes like Chavez say, there's really no such thing as a free lunch! Someone has to pay for it. Socialising a countries infrastructure and booting out the Shell's and BP's etc would be popular to a people such as Venezuela's poor for a while until things start to go pear shape.