Venezuelans lost 19 lbs. on average over past year due to lack of food

[NED funded]

Lol what do you think caused Venezuela's collapse?

An incompetent goverment who thought:

- Endless public spending could be sustained indefinitely (Unlike other oil rich states that instead saved funds for such crisis)
- Price controls, in order to: "bring down the prices of goods to "affordable" levels"
- Endless printing of money
- Seizing of private companies ("because they are a result of the evil american imperialist to oppress the people and strip us from our resources"), killing most if not all incentives to invest in Venezuela
- Putting an artificial exchange rate between the dollar and the Bolivar, which ultimately created a black market and further devaluated the Bolivar)
- Hyperinflation, which kills incentives to buy and sell stuff since said stuff could loose it's value the next day.
- And blaming everything on evil capitalist imperialism.

[PosPosPos]

An incompetent goverment who thought:

- Endless public spending could be sustained indefinitely (Unlike other oil rich states that instead saved funds for such crisis)
- Price controls, in order to: "bring down the prices of goods to "affordable" levels"
- Endless printing of money
- Seizing of private companies ("because they are a result of the evil american imperialist to oppress the people and strip us from our resources"), killing most if not all incentives to invest in Venezuela
- Putting an artificial exchange rate between the dollar and the Bolivar, which ultimately created a black market and further devaluated the Bolivar)
- Hyperinflation, which kills incentives to buy and sell stuff since said stuff could loose it's value the next day.
- And blaming everything on evil capitalist imperialism.

Which has fuck all to do with socialism since you were apparently too busy to see it was a rhetorical question directed at someone who's ignorant of the situation.

[dextersmith]

How likely is murder for cannibalism going to be?

[NED funded]

Which has fuck all to do with socialism since you were apparently too busy to see it was a rhetorical question directed at someone who's ignorant of the situation.

Social programs, price controls and seizing of private companies have nothing to do with socialism?

[Stormspellz]

Not even a page deep and I'm acutely aware again why this forum is fuckin' retarded.

It took one single post.

[Wells]

An incompetent goverment who thought:

- Endless public spending could be sustained indefinitely (Unlike other oil rich states that instead saved funds for such crisis)
- Price controls, in order to: "bring down the prices of goods to "affordable" levels"
- Endless printing of money
- Seizing of private companies ("because they are a result of the evil american imperialist to oppress the people and strip us from our resources"), killing most if not all incentives to invest in Venezuela
- Putting an artificial exchange rate between the dollar and the Bolivar, which ultimately created a black market and further devaluated the Bolivar)
- Hyperinflation, which kills incentives to buy and sell stuff since said stuff could loose it's value the next day.
- And blaming everything on evil capitalist imperialism.

Right, just garden variety bad government. We see this happen in nonsocialist countries too.

[Wells]

Social programs, price controls and seizing of private companies have nothing to do with socialism?

Its a distinction without a difference. You're just debating the flavor of the bad governance.

[Celista]

An incompetent goverment who thought:

- Endless public spending could be sustained indefinitely (Unlike other oil rich states that instead saved funds for such crisis)
- Price controls, in order to: "bring down the prices of goods to "affordable" levels"
- Endless printing of money
- Seizing of private companies ("because they are a result of the evil american imperialist to oppress the people and strip us from our resources"), killing most if not all incentives to invest in Venezuela
- Putting an artificial exchange rate between the dollar and the Bolivar, which ultimately created a black market and further devaluated the Bolivar)
- Hyperinflation, which kills incentives to buy and sell stuff since said stuff could loose it's value the next day.
- And blaming everything on evil capitalist imperialism.

You basically said the same thing like three times, hyperinflation + printing of money is essentially the same thing. Venezuela's problem is primarily related to poor economic policy, particularly lack of diversification.

Capitalist countries have similar attitudes towards socialist countries, despite the clear and persistent problems with capitalism as an economic ideology. People need to overcome their tribalism/forcefed ideology and realize that there are pluses and minuses to both capitalism and socialism and that no political ideology is perfect.

[NED funded]

You basically said the same thing like three times, hyperinflation + printing of money is essentially the same thing. Venezuela's problem is primarily related to poor economic policy, particularly lack of diversification.

Capitalist countries have similar attitudes towards socialist countries, despite the clear and persistent problems with capitalism as an economic ideology. People need to overcome their tribalism/forcefed ideology and realize that there are pluses and minuses to both capitalism and socialism and that no political ideology is perfect.

Yeah, me saying Hyperinflation was redundant, I write this on the get to go. So my bad there. Our problems do not cause people to literally starve to death and being unable to sell a car in fears of the money being worthless the next day.

[Coffeh]

Don't you just love socialism?

No, no. This time we'll do it right!

[PosPosPos]

Social programs, price controls and seizing of private companies have nothing to do with socialism?

So why are Scandinavian countries not in the same boat as Venezuela? On that same note why isn't America or any democratic nations in the dumpster like North Korea?

[Tijuana]

It always ends the same. I'm sure they will get food aid soon if they need it but, their system of government will never be sustainable. It has never worked anywhere. Hopefully nobody has to die for them to abandon their ideology.

[May90]

Usually having a dictator murdering his political opponents and calling Western democracies "Imperialist colonizers" is a pretty bad sign. I still do not understand, to be honest, how such regimes survive for decades; you would think, with such a poor management they shouldn't last more than a couple of months... Soviet Union existed for 74 years, North Korea for ~70 now, Cuba almost 60 - this really defies all laws of physics. At least Veneluela seems to have gotten lucky and approached the breaking point relatively fast, without multiple generations suffering.

[DesMephisto]

Don't you just love socialism?

The once-wealthy oil producing nation has fallen on hard times since Nicolás Maduro took power following the death of socialist leader Hugo Chávez in 2013. A drop in global oil prices has crippled the country’s economy and Venezuela has been plagued with the worst inflation rate in the world, close to 700 percent last year, according to International Monetary Fund.

Don't you love a capitalistic society in which people are raised with the inability to comprehend what they read.

#Capitalism

[NED funded]

So why are Scandinavian countries not in the same boat as Venezuela? On that same note why isn't America or any democratic nations in the dumpster like North Korea?

Because Scandinavian countries do not seize private property out of their whims? And Scandinavian countries does not add price control to quite literally everything? Scandinavian countries still have capitalism and a free market to drive the economy and not the goverment (an inherent feature of socialism)?

[Celista]

Yeah, me saying Hyperinflation was redundant, I write this on the get to go. So my bad there. Our problems do not cause people to literally starve to death and being unable to sell a car in fears of the money being worthless the next day.

Again, hyperinflation is not a socialist issue. If the US suddenly had to pay our debts all at once, and the Central Bank stupidly decided to print a huge amount of money to cover our debts, we would have hyperinflation issues here as well.

Hyperinflation has occurred in several capitalist economies. IN FACT, hyperinflation has occurred in the early days of the United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_...ental_currency

If you're interested in things like the history of currencies, then the story of Continental currency in the United States is an interesting tale. I recommend reading up on it.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Have you never seen Fight Club?

[PosPosPos]

Because Scandinavian countries do not seize private property out of their whims? And Scandinavian countries does not add price control to quite literally everything? Scandinavian countries still have capitalism and a free market to drive the economy and not the goverment (an inherent feature of socialism)?

So the problem is not socialism, unlike what you posit earlier?

[Tijuana]

So why are Scandinavian countries not in the same boat as Venezuela? On that same note why isn't America or any democratic nations in the dumpster like North Korea?

The answer to your question lies in a classic Reagan joke: Two Marxists are walking around in Russia. One asks the other, "Do you think we have achieved Full Communism? Are we all the way there yet?" There other says, "Oh no, it's going to get a lot worse than this."

The reality is Scandinavian countries are no wholly socialist. They are more socialist than the US, which incidentally also has many socialist programs. But, they are nothing on the level that Venezuela is.

That said, the starting point of Venezuela's socialism was abject poverty. It's been a pretty long time since Scandinavian countries were dealing with that.

Lastly, I don't get your point about comparing the US to Best Korea. What are you getting at there, calling them a democracy? I'm confused.

[NED funded]

Right, just garden variety bad government. We see this happen in nonsocialist countries too.

Yes, but in nonsocialist countries the free market usually survives. Hence why you have Cuba a nation that was one of the richest there was, but lead by an incompetent leader. Planned economies do not work unless you have a goverment capable of taking into consideration all variables into it.