What exactly is going on in Venezuela and why? I thought they were just overly dependent on oil and collapsed when the oil prices dropped so sharply, but everyone seems to think it's more important than that.
What exactly is going on in Venezuela and why...
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It's a mix of that and purposeful economic sabatoge. I forgot the exact term for it, but groups in venezuela are purposefully hoarding goods in order to create an artificial shortage, with corporations allowing tons of flour and other goods to rot instead of selling them.
Currency collapse
Their oil became worthless because it's some of the lowest quality (but highest quantity) raw crude on the planet, so it costs more for them to extract it than most other countries. As the price of oil lowered, they could no longer efficiently break even on oil extraction… so nobody traded with them for a while
Well, oil was basically Venezuela's only export. As a result their exchange rate slowly slid because they still wanted to import shit. That sparked a period of hyperinflation and mass shortages which in turn sparked mass civil unrest
Basically they were too dependent on oil, didn't know shit about international trade, and lost the support of the local populace. If they had developed literally any other industry to be competitive on the international level, this wouldn't have happened
The situation was caused by the nationalization of oil, which the country depends on, which they then used to pay for insane amounts of welfare. Then the aforementioned oil price issue screwed their industry, putting the welfare that had become such a huge part of the citizens' lives. The Venezuelan government, being run by fucking idiots if you couldn't already tell, then decided to compensate by instituting terrible policies like price controls and wage setting, all in an economy that was still capitalist outside the large nationalized oil sector.
There is some sabotage going on, but those are "just" attempting to prevent the situation from being remedied. The situation itself was caused by Maduro and his braindead administration. Never trust reformist succdems.
Venezuela: to get a background, watch this video, the guy explains it pretty good.
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the tldr version here:
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Don't the Saudis also control their own oil?
Petro dollar my man. Saudis can only sell their oil using US currency. Been that way since FDR
Being too weak to resist your enemies isn't an excuse for failure.
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Way to the miss the point retard. If you were stronger your legs wouldn't get broken in the first place.
Those are really bad false equivalencies, user.
So what you're saying is that the next time we have the chance to reduce capitalists to nuclear ash, we should take it? Got it.
It's good to know that political sluts like you will always accept the Argument from Strength.
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We are observing umpteenth practical demonstration of why Communism is historically inevitable.
No. Capitalists are doing the usual crap: sabotaging economy by cutting supply of daily necessities - which would've sounded like a conspiracy theory, if the same shit hadn't been repeatedly done (at the very least) since 18th century (French Revolution: everybody likes to remember guillotines, but nobody likes to remember how many people starved to death after Robespierre got beheaded and his food distribution laws were revoked).
Government is trying to solve this via political measures, but is constantly failing, since measures have to be economic - otherwise corruption takes over bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, Fascism is being brewed in the background (under the same "anti-totalitarian" Libertarian mask, as in Chile-1973). So you literally have Anarcho-Fascists running amok in Venezuela.
P.s. oil problems are secondary.
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Precisely, so why do you keep sperging out about 'right' when it's irrelevant? A socialist system that lacks the might to sustain itself in the face of adversity is a failure regardless of how 'right' it may be otherwise.
CIA is irrelevant in face of Maduro's impotence.
So we launch nukes? Alright, we launch the nukes. Capitalists can't sabotage socialism if they're ash.
Pretty fucking wild of Maduro to be setting policy while he was in diapers.
the oil price drop plus a little bit of US meddling
this was all caused in part by the Soc-Dem government not having the balls to deal with the national bourgeois
Chavez was far too much of a humanitarian.
Donating oil to the US was, in hindsight, a bad move.
His crime was just being a socdem really, don't blame him, he couldn't help it.
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BAD END
You mean "launches land-based offensive into mountainous terrain overgrown with forests and filled with several millions of armed, trained and enraged enemy soldiers"?
I say Trump will have to re-instate draft before his term runs out.
guy you reply to is right, you know?
the DPRK is setting a good example on how to get shit done
The key here is the price controls. In a capitalist economy, price controls lead to hoarding and reduced productive capacity because porkies gonna pork.
Venezuela is a shit show due to incompetence, but it is true that the local porkies tried to sabotage the endeavor out of spite.
The only reason the Western media cares about it is because it's easy ratings from retarded burgers that want to chafe their chodes to how soshlisum dun werk huehue. Keep in mind how Latin countries where succdem policies are harmless, i.e. Bolivia, are unheard of in this same media.