Venezuela is one of the last remaining socialist dictatorships in South America. If you look at the other countries who rid themselves of dictators and turned towards market democracy the growth rates have been staggering.
South America is full of resources and natural wealth, and should be a very wealthy economy. The only thing holding parts of the continent back is the class warfare and old marxist/socialist governments.
Look at how well Chile (a benchmark for modern western markets via Milton Friedman et al) and Argentina (for a time) recovered. That is what Venezuela should also look like. I have never heard anybody argue for the South American style of socialist dictatorships and against the reforms that have been demonstrated in the other, successful, nations of the region.
I didn't know there were other socialist dictatorships in South America. We've had many (right-wing) military dictatorships though.
I don't particularly like him, but I think it was inevitable that someone like him would show up given the history of economic inequality in the country. You have to realise that you can only tell people it's their fault for being poor for so long before they react.
Yet he tells those same people that the current government faults are cause by the previous governments. Funny since he has been in power for 13 years.
Current problems in Venezuela are the responsibility of this government.
I specially like when they says things like the fact that there are teenagers girls aged say 17, getting pregnant because of the lack of education in our school system. And yet nobody seems to realize that a 17 year old girl was 4 when Chavez got to power.
I tell you, the things us Venezuelans need to hear everyday... it makes you want to cry.
>The only thing holding parts of the continent back is the >class warfare and old marxist/socialist governments.
Having just lived in 5 different countries in South America over the last year and a half, I disagree.
If I had to pick "The Only Thing" holding parts of the continent back, I have to say the severe meddling of the west. It's disgraceful.
Woah, hold on there. I didn't for one second say I supported the likes of Chavez.
I said if I had to pick "The Only Thing" holding back the development of South America, it's the meddling of the west (and Central too, IMHO).
I actually think Cahvez has some good ideas in theory, they just don't work out well for the people of Venezuela Which shows they are actually bad ideas in reality.
Which sounds suspiciously like the old "Communism/Socialism work great in theory, but not in reality"
Your comment is fiction almost from beginning to end.
Venezuela is not a dictatorship; it's been a democracy since 1958. It's true that it's socialist, just like Canada and France, but it's struggling with much bigger problems of corruption, illiteracy, poverty, and crime than those countries are. I don't think Chávez has improved the situation much. Chávez's government may not be a very good democratic government, but it is at least a democracy. The opposition is even worse, which is why they don't get elected.
I live in Argentina. The country has immense potential, but it's been in intermittent decline since the 1930s. It has never had a Marxist government. The periods of rapid decline have largely coincided with right-wing military dictatorships, although there have been a few major disasters under democratic governments as well, notably the 2001 economic collapse produced by the unsustainable 1990s economic policies you are commending.
It's useless to blame "class warfare" for the problems. Even if it's true that the rich are in a state of war with the rest of society (and I think it's a substantial exaggeration; expatriating your ill-gotten gains, making racist remarks about Paraguayan immigrants, and hiring employees under the table does not rise to the level of warfare) the path to reconciliation is through building a society they feel proud to be included in and confident in investing in, not blaming them for the social problems we all have a hand in creating.
Chile has barely surpassed Argentina economically after 80 years of Argentine decline. It's true that it has a more functioning economy, but I'm not sure that the society as a whole is functioning better.
Chile also never had a socialist dictatorship, nor has Uruguay, Venezuela, or Brazil, so I think that when you talk about "the South American style of socialist dictatorships" you are lying about history in hopes that your readers will be ignorant. Maybe there's something that actually happened in the real world that that phrase is intended to refer to?
South America is full of resources and natural wealth, and should be a very wealthy economy. The only thing holding parts of the continent back is the class warfare and old marxist/socialist governments.
Look at how well Chile (a benchmark for modern western markets via Milton Friedman et al) and Argentina (for a time) recovered. That is what Venezuela should also look like. I have never heard anybody argue for the South American style of socialist dictatorships and against the reforms that have been demonstrated in the other, successful, nations of the region.
See 'The Miracle of Chile':
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_Chile