The latest problem in Venezuela

[Loren Pechtel]

Oh, the horrors! No more Big Macs!

http://time.com/4420029/mcdonalds-big-mac-venezuela/?xid=homepage

 

[Jayjay]

McDonald’s has temporarily stopped selling Big Macs in Venezuela due to a food shortage affecting the bread that typically goes between the burger’s two meat patties.

Venezuela's shortages aside, isn't it the same bread that goes on top and the bottom, just cut in three pieces instead of two? How can there be a shortage of the middle piece only?

 

[untermensche]

What is the purpose of these threads beyond gloating over the hard times being suffered by some?

Venezuela abandoned the work of Chavez and it's leaders now behave as your average thoroughly corrupt capitalist.

Even Castro talks about the need of markets.

Visionary leaders are many times replaced with corrupt leaders. It happens all the time.

 

[Jayjay]

What is the purpose of these threads beyond gloating over the hard times being suffered by some?

Venezuela abandoned the work of Chavez and it's leaders now behave as your average thoroughly corrupt capitalist.

Even Castro talks about the need of markets.

Visionary leaders are many times replaced with corrupt leaders. It happens all the time.

How come Venezuela is the only country where the "corrupt capitalists" feel the need to take away Big Mac's middle bun?

 

[untermensche]

What is the purpose of these threads beyond gloating over the hard times being suffered by some?

Venezuela abandoned the work of Chavez and it's leaders now behave as your average thoroughly corrupt capitalist.

Even Castro talks about the need of markets.

Visionary leaders are many times replaced with corrupt leaders. It happens all the time.

How come Venezuela is the only country where the "corrupt capitalists" feel the need to take away Big Mac's middle bun?

It's not.

Go to places all over central and South America, in capitalist nations, like Guatemala, or Mexico, and you will places where people have no McDonalds. Extreme poverty exists all over the hemisphere.

Venezuela is no different.

 

[Axulus]

How come Venezuela is the only country where the "corrupt capitalists" feel the need to take away Big Mac's middle bun?

It's not.

Go to places all over central and South America, in capitalist nations, like Guatemala, or Mexico, and you will places where people have no McDonalds. Extreme poverty exists all over the hemisphere.

Venezuela is no different.

Then why are the shelves full of food immediately on the other side of an invisible line over in Colombia?

100,000 cross Colombia border shopping for scarce food


“It’s kind of crazy day,” said Alejandro Chacon, who owns a hardware store in the nearby town of San Cristobal and was crossing the border for the first time since the closure. “It’s strange to see this, but we know we’re going to find what we want in Colombia, so it’s a nice difference.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wor...4ca938-4bc1-11e6-8dac-0c6e4accc5b1_story.html

 

[Derec]

Extreme poverty exists all over the hemisphere.
Venezuela is no different.

But they should not be "extremely poor". They should be wealthy given they have, by some accounts, world's largest oil reserves. Even if you do not count the oil sands, they are in the top 10. But Chavez/Maduro mismanagement of the economy means that they can't even keep up the oil production.
Venezuela’s Oil Production Fell to 13-Year Low in June, IEA Says
High oil prices in the 2000s and early 2010s could mask the colossal failure that is "21st century socialism" but reality was bound to catch up with them. The oil price collapse merely accelerated the inevitable.

 

[J842P]

McDonald’s has temporarily stopped selling Big Macs in Venezuela due to a food shortage affecting the bread that typically goes between the burger’s two meat patties.

Venezuela's shortages aside, isn't it the same bread that goes on top and the bottom, just cut in three pieces instead of two? How can there be a shortage of the middle piece only?

I haven't had a Big Mac in over a decade, but from what I recall, it was just an extra piece of bread, so they would be cutting down on their bread consumption by 1/3rd.

 

[untermensche]

It's not.

Go to places all over central and South America, in capitalist nations, like Guatemala, or Mexico, and you will places where people have no McDonalds. Extreme poverty exists all over the hemisphere.

Venezuela is no different.

Then why are the shelves full of food immediately on the other side of an invisible line over in Colombia?

100,000 cross Colombia border shopping for scarce food


“It’s kind of crazy day,” said Alejandro Chacon, who owns a hardware store in the nearby town of San Cristobal and was crossing the border for the first time since the closure. “It’s strange to see this, but we know we’re going to find what we want in Colombia, so it’s a nice difference.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wor...4ca938-4bc1-11e6-8dac-0c6e4accc5b1_story.html

Part of it is corruption and part of it is deliberate.

- - - Updated - - -

Extreme poverty exists all over the hemisphere.
Venezuela is no different.

But they should not be "extremely poor". They should be wealthy given they have, by some accounts, world's largest oil reserves. Even if you do not count the oil sands, they are in the top 10. But Chavez/Maduro mismanagement of the economy means that they can't even keep up the oil production.
Venezuela’s Oil Production Fell to 13-Year Low in June, IEA Says
High oil prices in the 2000s and early 2010s could mask the colossal failure that is "21st century socialism" but reality was bound to catch up with them. The oil price collapse merely accelerated the inevitable.

There was huge poverty in Venezuela before Chavez. An apartheid system basically.

Why did no capitalist care about it then?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Probably because he became President in 1999 and none of the capitalists in question had much of an online presence back then.

 

[untermensche]

Probably because he became President in 1999 and none of the capitalists in question had much of an online presence back then.

There was no criticism from existing US capitalists.

There were one or two at the time.

 

[dismal]

Asked:

What is the purpose of these threads beyond gloating over the hard times being suffered by some?

And answered:

Venezuela is no different.

Venezuela is different than most everywhere. It has a government that actively interferes with even the most basic operations of markets. We are now seeing the fruits of those differences. There is an opportunity to learn.

 

[untermensche]

Asked:



And answered:

Venezuela is no different.

Venezuela is different than most everywhere. It has a government that actively interferes with even the most basic operations of markets. We are now seeing the fruits of those differences. There is an opportunity to learn.

We're seeing the fruits of outright corruption in the government and deliberate shortages by manufacturers.

It is not the system created by Chavez that survived his entire presidency.

 

[Derec]

We're seeing the fruits of outright corruption in the government and deliberate shortages by manufacturers.
It is not the system created by Chavez that survived his entire presidency.

There is a lot of corruption in Venezuela, but at the root of the problems is the anti-market, anti-private enterprise system instituted by Chavez. It was always rotten, but for a while the unprecedentedly high oil prices could mask the rot.

 

[untermensche]

We're seeing the fruits of outright corruption in the government and deliberate shortages by manufacturers.
It is not the system created by Chavez that survived his entire presidency.

There is a lot of corruption in Venezuela, but at the root of the problems is the anti-market, anti-private enterprise system instituted by Chavez. It was always rotten, but for a while the unprecedentedly high oil prices could mask the rot.

The system should not be anti-market.

That is not the system Chavez created.

It should not be purely pro-business like many in US government would like either.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

What is the purpose of these threads beyond gloating over the hard times being suffered by some?

Venezuela abandoned the work of Chavez and it's leaders now behave as your average thoroughly corrupt capitalist.

Even Castro talks about the need of markets.

Visionary leaders are many times replaced with corrupt leaders. It happens all the time.

Venezuela didn't abandon Chavez, what we are seeing now is just the expected outcome of what Chavez did.

- - - Updated - - -

How come Venezuela is the only country where the "corrupt capitalists" feel the need to take away Big Mac's middle bun?

It's not.

Go to places all over central and South America, in capitalist nations, like Guatemala, or Mexico, and you will places where people have no McDonalds. Extreme poverty exists all over the hemisphere.

Venezuela is no different.

The problem in this case isn't poverty, but that McDonald's can't get the materials to make the bread.

- - - Updated - - -

There is a lot of corruption in Venezuela, but at the root of the problems is the anti-market, anti-private enterprise system instituted by Chavez. It was always rotten, but for a while the unprecedentedly high oil prices could mask the rot.

The system should not be anti-market.

That is not the system Chavez created.

It should not be purely pro-business like many in US government would like either.

And you can say the sun rises in the west.

 

[whichphilosophy]

The opposition has been in power since last year. When is their honeymoon of blaming the previous government going to be over as happens in just about any other country? It made huge promises and materialization is awaited. The problem is Venezuela focusses heavily on oil prices which are now still very low.

 

[Jayjay]

The opposition has been in power since last year. When is their honeymoon of blaming the previous government going to be over as happens in just about any other country? It made huge promises and materialization is awaited. The problem is Venezuela focusses heavily on oil prices which are now still very low.

The opposition in Venezuela is hardly in power. The Maduro government is just extended the emergency law that lets it rule by decree, and any objections from the opposition are silenced by the judiciary.

 

[whichphilosophy]

The opposition has been in power since last year. When is their honeymoon of blaming the previous government going to be over as happens in just about any other country? It made huge promises and materialization is awaited. The problem is Venezuela focusses heavily on oil prices which are now still very low.

The opposition in Venezuela is hardly in power. The Maduro government is just extended the emergency law that lets it rule by decree, and any objections from the opposition are silenced by the judiciary.

I'm out of date. In fact I read that his latest decree is until 2017. The economy was very much oil based which is not a good idea considering the current prices which have fallen again recently after a rise since the end of the year. Overall I think it will reach the old levels during early 2017.

 

[dismal]

The opposition has been in power since last year. When is their honeymoon of blaming the previous government going to be over as happens in just about any other country? It made huge promises and materialization is awaited. The problem is Venezuela focusses heavily on oil prices which are now still very low.

"In power"? Shit you are pretty clueless.

And Venezuela does not "focus on oil", it destroys the capacity to produce most everything else.

Governments need not "focus on" toilet paper for there to be toilet paper. They merely need to get out of the way. Let people acquire the materials to produce it at market prices and sell it at market prices.