Toro
Diamond Member
Shall we list the countries destroyed by capitalism?
Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Vietnam etc etc?
It's so funny how liberals take it so personally when socialism is attacked. They immediately have to spring to its defense by attacking capitalism. Libs hate capitalism just as much as they do Christians and whites.
It's funny how you'll jump to 100 wrong conclusions at the same time.
I'm not a Socialist and I don't like Socialism.
The point I was making was that just because Venezuela isn't working, doesn't mean it's because of Socialism at all. Partly it's due to the people in charge. Maduro is an idiot, he's your typical nonsense politician who's more interested in being in charge than actually doing anything useful, he's a bit like Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, another muppet Socialist who is very good at playing the game, but wouldn't be able to run a kids' birthday party.
People will say that Socialism doesn't work, but all systems can fail. It's not that hard. You get the US going around the world bullying other countries, not giving a damn about other countries as long as they get what they want. Does Syria work right now? Hell no it doesn't, and that's due to things like the US destabilizing the region. Oh, how great Capitalism works, hey.
Perspective dude, that's what I'm offering, you're offering bad assumptions.
Socialism is the main reason why Venezuela is falling apart.
A similar playbook has happened in many countries.
Which makes the assumption that a good socialist leader would have led them down the exact path they are on now. I don't agree with that. I think their main problems are because of their leadership being awful. Maduro is not Chavez.
But had the price of oil not dropped, then Maduro probably wouldn't be having so many problems either. When you have an economy which has, quite frankly, been fucked over by the US for so long, then the economy might have been better, and might have been able to cope without relying heavily on oil. But it did, and Chavez got elected because he promised hope of getting out of the US's shadow.
It's a complex situation, and one where you can't just blame it on Socialism. And I think Socialism is mostly unworkable. However I also support things like socialized healthcare, police, armed forces etc.
This is on Chavez. Maduro merely inherited the problem.
Chavez was grossly incompetent. He ramped up spending when oil was at all time highs, ran deficits even then, and eviscerated PdVSa causing production to fall. When inflation started to soar, he implemented capital controls, pegged the bolivar, and fixed prices on many goods. Unsurprisingly to anyone who isn't an economic idiot, shortages occurred because businesses wouldn't operate at a loss. Chavez then started seizing businesses, blaming them for the shortages, curtailing investment even further.
After Chavez died, oil collapsed. But the economy was heading south beforehand.
This has happened many times before. As Marx said, history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.
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