Topic: Real Time Socialist Train Wreck (again) Happening Now in Venezuela - page 5. (Read 42657 times)

Magazine in 2013: Socialist Venezuela an 'Economic Miracle'
Today, the socialist state cannot feed itself.






A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Venezuela. Inflation is rampant (700 percent, as of Tuesday) and there is not enough food to feed the nation's 31 million mouths. U.S. companies are pulling out.

One of the reasons the crisis in Venezuela is so tragic is that it was so predictable. Mary Anastasia O'Grady, writing in the Wall Street Journal, recently noted  the one obvious flaw in the late Hugo Chavez's economic policy:   

    In his craving for power, [Chávez] pledged to redistribute Venezuela’s wealth to the poor masses. The god-father of '21st-century socialism' seems to have been unaware that the resources he promised to shower on his people had to first be produced.

The irony is that just a few short years ago, many were citing Venezuela as one of the great triumphs of socialism. In a 2012 New York Times op-ed, Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research gushed about the gains Venezuela had experienced under Chavez after the strongman seized the assets of oil contractors in 2009:   

    Since the Chávez government got control over the national oil industry, poverty has been cut by half, and extreme poverty by 70 percent. College enrollment has more than doubled, millions of people have access to health care for the first time and the number of people eligible for public pensions has quadrupled.

In 2013, left-leaning Salon (citing Weisbrot in the New York Times) claimed that Chávez had performed an "economic miracle." Writer David Sirota even chided those who refused to acknowledge Venezuela's economic "success":

    Chavez became the bugaboo of American politics because his full-throated advocacy of socialism and redistributionism at once represented a fundamental critique of neoliberal economics, and also delivered some indisputably positive results. Indeed, as shown by some of the most significant indicators, Chavez racked up an economic record that a legacy-obsessed American president could only dream of achieving....

    When a country goes socialist and it craters, it is laughed off as a harmless and forgettable cautionary tale about the perils of command economics. When, by contrast, a country goes socialist and its economy does what Venezuela’s did, it is not perceived to be a laughing matter – and it is not so easy to write off or to ignore. It suddenly looks like a threat to the corporate capitalism, especially when said country has valuable oil resources that global powerhouses like the United States rely on.

Sirota is correct that nobody should “laugh off” the cratering of Venezuela’s government. No pleasure or amusement can be found in the pain of the people of Venezuela.

That said, is it too much to ask that the failures of socialism are recognized as such? Is it wrong to point out that confiscating private property and entire industries for "redistributive" purposes is not just morally dubious, but destructive?   


http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/magazine-2013-socialist-venezuela-economic-miracle


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The definition of madness: expecting a different outcome over, and over, and over...

Venezuela, where a hamburger is officially $170



Caracas (AFP) – If a visitor to Venezuela is unfortunate enough to pay for anything with a foreign credit card, the eye-watering cost might suggest they were in a city pricier than Tokyo or Zurich.

A hamburger sold for 1,700 Venezuelan bolivares is $170, or a 69,000-bolivar hotel room is $6,900 a night, based on the official rate of 10 bolivares for $1.

But of course no merchant is pricing at the official rate imposed under currency controls. It’s the black market rate of 1,000 bolivares per dollar that’s applied.

But for Venezuelans paid in hyperinflation-hit bolivares, and living in an economy relying on mostly imported goods or raw materials, conditions are unthinkably expensive.

Even for the middle class, most of it sliding into poverty, hamburgers and hotels are out-of-reach excesses.

“Everybody is knocked low,” Michael Leal, a 34-year-old manager of an eyewear store in Caracas, told AFP. “We can’t breathe.”



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

Venezuela produces two things: crude oil and Miss Universe winners. This is not an economical system that's viable in the long run...

It's really sad what is happening in Venezuela now.
They are so rich with natural resources, specially oil, but because of their socialist government, they lost possibility for good life.
It's common knowledge that only thing which socialists know is to spend other people's money.
When all money is spend and there is nothing new to sell or spend, country collapse and we see it in Venezuela now.

The Taste Of Socialism: People In Venezuela Scrounging Garbage For Food, But No Shortage On Oppression…

Thousands Of Venezuelans Flood The Streets For Third Time In Week, Calling For Recall Of Maduro






For the third time in a week, Venezuelan police clashed on Wednesday with thousands of protesters who took to the streets of Caracas demanding a referendum to recall President Nicolas Maduro.

The massive rally came days after the socialist president declared a state of emergency in the economically struggling country. He gave himself decree powers for 60 days.

Thousands of people tried to make their way through to the country’s electoral body, but police in riot gear blocked the route. A small group tried to break through and was turned back by tear gas.

On Tuesday, opposition leader Henrique Capriles called on the country to reject the extra powers granted to Maduro.

“If Maduro wants to apply this decree, he needs to start preparing tanks and war planes, because he’ll have to apply it by force,” Capriles said.



http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2016/05/18/venezuelans-demanding-president-recall-take-to-streets-in-massive-caracas-rally/?intcmp=hplnws


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Next stop on the train wreck: Death & Destruction Station.

No electricity, no antibiotics, no beds, no soap: A devastating look inside Venezuela's crisis-hit hospitals where 7 babies die a day, bleeding patients lie strewn on the floor, and doctors try to operate without tools



    President Nicolas Maduro claims Venezuela has the best healthcare in the world after Cuba
    But death rates are soaring and hospitals are filthy as supplies run low and electricity is shut off
    The nation is in economic crisis after price of oil - their main monetary reserve - plummeted
    Images taken by the New York Times show patients lying on the floor covered in blood and babies dying










The impact of Venezuela's economic collapse on its people is almost impossible to put into words.

But these images inside calamity-hit hospitals go some way to communicating the devastation.

Since oil prices plummeted, all aspects of everyday life - electricity, food, paper - have been rationed.

Critically, medical centers are in crisis.

Without soap, antibiotics, power, gloves and x-rays, surgeons are struggling to keep patients alive.

Pictures taken by New York Times photographer Meridith Kohut offer a glimpse inside some of the most notorious centers - while President Nicolas Maduro claims the socialist nation has the best healthcare in the world.




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3595946/No-electricity-no-antibiotics-no-beds-no-soap-devastating-look-inside-Venezuela-s-crisis-struck-hospitals-7-babies-die-day-bleeding-patients-lie-strewn-floor-doctors-try-operate-without-tools.html

A good guide for figuring out what to do down the road if you live in the US or other nations that are turning socialist. I would imagine that those in the big cities are the worst off. Even if you're not in the big city, eventually those people will move into the countryside and seek out any food available, so even there you're not safe if you can't protect your food.


One plus of all this though is that when Venezuela collapses, if they are smart about scrapping the old system and put in property rights it would probably be a good investment to buy some land there.

Though it looks it could be more like Romania where the country collapses and the elderly cling onto their socialist past (it's all they know) and the youth embrace freedom. But it still takes a long time for any form of value to evolve in the country, leaving most people poor.

Flashback: Wednesday, Mar 6, 2013 12:30 PM UTC



Hugo Chavez’s economic miracle
The Venezuelan leader was often marginalized as a radical. But his brand of socialism achieved real economic gains



For the last decade in American politics, Hugo Chavez became a potent political weapon – within a few years of his ascent, he was transformed from just a leader of a neighboring nation into a boogeyman synonymous with extremism. Regularly invoked in over-the-top political rhetoric, Chavez’s name became a decontextualized epithet to try to attach to a political opponent so as to make that opponent look like a radical. Because of this, America barely flinched upon hearing the news that the Bush administration tried to orchestrate a coup against the democratically elected Venezuelan leader.
Just to get it out of the way, I’ll state the obvious: with respect to many policies, Chavez was no saint. He, for instance, amassed a troubling record when it came to protecting human rights and basic democratic freedoms (though as Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy notes, “Venezuela is recognized by many scholars to be more democratic than it was in the pre-Chávez era”). His rein also coincided with a boom in violent crime.

That said, these serious problems, while certainly worthy of harsh criticism, were not the primary reason Chavez became the favorite effigy of American politicians and pundits. In an age marked by America’s drone assaults, civil liberties abuses, and war on voting, it is not as if this nation’s political establishment sees an assault on democratic freedoms as deplorable. Likewise, that same political establishment is more than friendly with leaders of countries like Mexico and Colombia – countries which are also periodically hotbeds of violent crime.
No, Chavez became the bugaboo of American politics because his full-throated advocacy of socialism and redistributionism at once represented a fundamental critique of neoliberal economics, and also delivered some indisputably positive results. Indeed, as shown by some of the most significant indicators, Chavez racked up an economic record that a legacy-obsessed American president could only dream of achieving.


http://archive.is/v8NOo#selection-2799.0-2865.413


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Over and over and over again... Train wreck... Death.

^^^^ The predictions on refugee outflow can realize. Millions of Venezuelans may flee to Colombia and Brazil. However, I don't think that the neighboring nations will be happy to accept these people. The governments in both Colombia and Brazil are struggling to deal with poverty in their own nations, and they are not prepared to accept the Venezuelans. 

Scenes From The Venezuela Apocalypse: “Countless Wounded” After 5,000 Loot Supermarket Looking For Food
As pure desperation has set in, crime has becomes inevitable




Over the last several years we have documented with clockwork regularity Venezuela's collapse into failed state status, which was cemented several weeks ago when news hit that "Venezuela had officially run out of money to print new money."  At that point the best one could do was merely to step back and watch as local society and civilization turned on itself, unleashing what would ultimately turn into Venezuela's own, sad apocalypse.

Last night we showed what Caracas, looks like this week:





As we wrote then these are simply hungry Venezuelans protesting that their children are dying from lack of food and medicine and that they do not have enough water or electricity. As AgainstCronyCapitalism added, this is a country with more oil than Saudi Arabia, and the government has stolen all the money and now they bottleneck peaceful protesters and threaten them with bombs (or haul them to prison and torture them).

As pure desperation has set in, crime has becomes inevitable. A man accused of mugging people in the streets of Caracas was surrounded by a mob of onlookers, beaten and set on fire, who published a pixeled-out but still graphic video of the man burning as mob justice is now the supreme arbiter of who lives and who dies:

"Roberto Fuentes Bernal, 42, was reportedly caught trying to mug passersby in the Venezuelan capital, and before police arrived at the scene, the crowd took the law into their own hands." The video can be seen here.

Now, in the latest shocking development, Venezuela saw a new wave of looting this week that resulted in at least two deaths, countless wounded, and millions of dollars in losses and damages.

According to Panampost, on Wednesday morning, a crowd sacked the Maracay Wholesale Market in the central region of Venezuela.  According to the testimonies of merchants, the endless food lines that Venezuelans have been enduring to do groceries could not be organized that day.

As time went by, desperate Venezuelans grew anxious over not being able to buy food. Then they started jumping over the gates and stormed the supermarket.

"They took milk, pasta, flour, oil, and milk powder. There were 5,000 people" one witness told Venezuela outlet El Estímulo.

People from across the entire state came to the supermarket because there were rumors that some products not found anywhere else would be sold there.

As a result of the massive crowd, the authorities were unable to preserve the peace. "There were 250 people for each National Guard officer… lots of people and few soldiers. At least one officer was beat up because he tried to stop the crowd,” another source told El Estímulo.

Other food dispensaries run by the government were also looted by the people.

Far from the promised socialist paradise, as the massive group of people moved, an entrance gate collapsed under the weight of the crowd, leaving several wounded.

The image below shows a human stampede over rice.

Over the last two weeks, several provinces have hosted scenes of looting in pharmacies, shopping malls, supermarkets, and food delivery trucks. In several markets, shouts of “we are hungry!” echoed. On April 27, the Venezuelan Chamber of Food (Cavidea) reported that the country’s food producers only had 15 days left of inventory.

PanamPost adds that lootings are becoming an increasingly common occurrence in Venezuela, as the country’s food shortage resulted in yet another reported incident of violence in a supermarket — this time in the Luvebras Automarket located in the La Florida Province of Caracas.





Videos posted to social media showed desperate people falling over each other trying to get bags of rice. One user claimed the looting occurred because it is difficult to get cereal, and so people “broke down the doors and damaged infrastructure.”

In the central province of Carabobo, residents ransacked a corn warehouse located in the coastal city of Puerto Cabello. They reportedly broke down the gate because workers were giving away small portions.

"There’s no rice, no pasta, no flour,” resident Glerimar Yohan told La Costa, “only hunger.”

* * *

Social Collapse Is Inevitable

With the economy dead, the only thing remaining is to watch as society implodes. To that end, Oscar Meza, Director of the Documentation Center for Social Analysis (Cendas-FVM), said that measurements of scarcity and inflation in May are going to be the worst to date. “We are officially declaring May as the month that [widespread] hunger began in Venezuela,” he told Web Noticias Venezuela. … “As for March, there was an increase in yearly prices due to inflation — a 582.9 percent increase for food, while the level of scarcity of basic products remains at 41.37 percent."






Meza said the trigger for the crisis is the shortage of bread and other foods derived from wheat.

“Prices are so high that you can’t buy anything, so people don’t buy bread, they don’t buy flour. You get porridge, you see the price of chicken go up and families struggle … lunch is around 1,500 bolivars… People used to take food from home to work, but now you can’t anymore because you don’t have food at home."

The is why, Español Ramón Muchacho, Mayor of Chacao in Caracas, said the streets of the capital of Venezuela are filled with people killing animals for food. "Muchacho reported that in Venezuela, it is a “painful reality” that people “hunt cats, dogs and pigeons” to ease their hunger."

Subsquently, Muchacho warned that Caribbean islands and Colombia may suffer an influx of refugees from Venezuela if food shortages continue in the country.

“As hunger deepens, we could see more Venezuelans fleeing by land or sea to an island,” Muchacho said.

And that is how all socialist utopias always end.

* * *

Meanwhile, as civil war appears inevitable, as we reported last night there are factions vying to oust Maduro, but signs that he may hang on and force his population to endure more of this socialist nightmare. One can only hope that these shocking scenes remain relegated to the streets of offshore socialist paradises, although Americans should always prepare for the worst in case they eventually manage to make their way into the country.



http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-13/scenes-venezuela-apocalypse-countless-wounded-after-5000-loot-supermarket-looking-fo



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The title of this thread was based on facts, not magical predictions.

Socialism is a great remedy for an overcrowded pigeon problem. And no more worries about getting your dog or cat spayed or neutered.

Beat that capitalism!

we see the corruption is too deep to fix their economy is in the tank and they are broke and maybe China will buy the country for their oil and expand their Communist territory.

Venezuela Tense As Cops Block Protesters Demanding Maduro Recall





Caracas (AFP) – Riot cops fired tear gas to head off a protest march Wednesday by opponents of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, who were demanding a referendum on removing him from office.

Political leaders and analysts warned tensions could erupt into unrest as the center-right opposition staged rallies across the crisis-hit South American country.

Protesters were demanding electoral authorities quickly approve their call for a vote on dumping the socialist leader.

Security forces blocked the street to keep demonstrators away from the headquarters of the National Electoral Board (CNE) in Caracas. A small number of tear gas canisters were fired.

The opposition coalition MUD said in a statement that one of its top leaders, Henrique Capriles, was affected by the tear gas as he led the march.

“I am fine. We Venezuelans want a recall referendum and change,” Capriles wrote later on Twitter. “Maduro will not defeat the people!”

The Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) blames Maduro for an economic crisis in which Venezuelans are having to queue for hours for rations of basic food and other goods.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-tense-protesters-march-against-president-165222298.html?ref=gs


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Socialist train wrecks are so predictable. They keep doing the same thing, killing their own, at the end. Every time. Then, you'll start hearing the left say "Hey! this is not socialism!". Every time.

Sad.

Dystopia: Venezuelans Are Now Killing Cats, Dogs, and Birds For Food Because Socialism Can't Provide



So, you know Venezuela is on the verge of economic collapse. The price of oil has dropped precipitously over the past few years—that’s a budgetary nightmare for a nation dependent on its oil exports. As a result, basic necessities, like toilet paper, are being rationed. There’s limited access to television and long distance phone service. There are rolling blackouts due to energy shortages. And now the government is cutting back the workweek to just two days. This comes at a time when Venezuela’s citizens need government services the most. Supermarkets are not stocked regularly, so there’s a food shortage; people are starving. They’ve resorted to looting to survive. You would think that the government can’t really afford to print its own currency because it’s so broke would be the cherry on top of this socialist nightmare. Nope—the hunger games appear to have begun, as Venezuelans are now hunting stray dogs, cats, and pigeons for sustenance (via PanAm Post):

    Ramón Muchacho, Mayor of Chacao in Caracas, said the streets of the capital of Venezuela are filled with people killing animals for food.

    Through Twitter, Muchacho reported that in Venezuela, it is a “painful reality” that people “hunt cats, dogs and pigeons” to ease their hunger.

    People are also reportedly gathering vegetables from the ground and trash to eat as well.

    The crisis in Venezuela is worsening everyday due in part to shortages reaching 70 percent. This to go along with the world’s highest level of inflation.

    The population’s desperation has begun to show, with looting and robberies for food increasing all the time. This Sunday, May 1, six Venezuelan military officials were arrested for stealing goats to ease their hunger, as there was no food at the Fort Manaure military base.

    […]

    The Venezuelan Chamber of Food (Cavidea) said many businesses only have 15 days worth of inventory. Production has been effected as a result of a shortage of raw materials, as well as exhausted national and international supply resources.

Just when you thought this left wing dystopia couldn’t get any worse—it does.


http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2016/05/09/venezuelans-are-now-hunting-cats-dogs-and-birds-for-food-because-socialism-cant-provide-n2160036?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=

Most oil producing countries have very cheap gas. I recall being in Kuwait and gas was 50 cents per gallon when the US was up over $3.

The hyperinflation and other issues currently being faced by the Venezuelans are not just limited to that country. The situation is almost the same in the other Latin American nations as well. The real issue is that the general population expects the government to provide them everything for free. For example, gasoline in Venezuela costs just $0.015 per liter, which is far below the cost of production.

Venezuelan Opposition Leader Assassinated Days After 1.8 Million Sign Petition To Oust Maduro









The situation in hyperinflating socialist paradise Venezuela just moved one step closer to chaotic totalitarianism. With President Maduro clinging to power (thanks to his military 'assistance') amid growing social unrest (1.8 million signatures gathered seeking a referendum to remove him), FoxNews Latino reports German Mavare, leader of the opposition UNT party, died Friday after being shot in the head, asassinated in the western state of Lara, according to his organisation. Maduro has appeared on State TV tying Mavare to "armed groups" and suggested that more right-wing politicians are potential targets.

The Venezuelan people are growing increasingly angry at the nightmare of economic squallor Nicolas Maduro appears to have laid at their door (thanks in large part to an overly-generous socialist agenda runnining out of other people's petrodollars)...

    In less than a week, more than 1.8 million people in Venezuela signed petitions seeking a referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro from office. That's nine times the required 200,000 signatures.

    The opposition said in a statement they delivered the petitions in 80 sealed boxes early Monday morning without notifying the media to avoid potential clashes with Maduro’s supporters.

    Ousting Maduro will not be an easy task despite his approval rating plummeting amid triple-digit inflation, widespread food shortages and near-daily power blackouts. Recent polls suggest two-thirds of Venezuelans want him out.

    If the National Electoral Council verifies the signatures in the coming days, it would trigger a second petition drive during which 20 percent of the electorate, almost 4 million people, would have to sign before a referendum could be scheduled on removing Maduro before his term ends in 2019.

    If a vote were held, the president would be removed only if the number of anti-Maduro votes exceeded the 7.6 million votes he received in the 2013 election. In December's parliamentary elections, opposition candidates mustered only 7.7 million even though they won control of the legislature by a landslide.

President Maduro has recently dug in against what he calls opposition attempts to destabilize Venezuela...



http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-08/venezuelan-opposition-leader-assassinated-days-after-18-million-sign-petition-oust-m

Human corruption, the rusting away of a trusting, powerful centralized solution. Something elegantly solved by the founder of this forum...