+4 votes
113 views
in Politics & Government ✌ by





4 Answers

+3 votes
by

The wonders of strong-man socialism.

You can be sure that the Venezuelan Nomenklatura does not share the problems of the masses.

+3 votes
by

I am not familiar with a situation in Venezuela. I believe that there are poor people. There are a minority of rich people like in every country.

+2 votes
by

Dear Dan,

I watched all three of these with interest, as I am now trying to study our situation in the USA...

I don't have any answers, but for now I am pondering the idea that maybe you cannot impose a new system from the top down, because as in chaos theory, "highly sensitive to initial conditions" stuff, you can never understand all the variables and account for them. So Chavez tried his best perhaps, terrible outcome in Venezuela now.

What I think must happen for a successful economy is a kind of wisdom from the common folk, the working folk, making our way step by step. And the role of government is a light hand, somehow to make certain of a strong free middle class, so that a few totalitarian monopolies never get control of government/economy/legislation - as may be now the worst risk the USA faces.

by

What they did was only exporting oil to other countries. Oil accounts for 95% of their exports. They just live with the money earns from the oil. Not producing anything within the country and buying from other countries. The last couple of years, the oil price went down. No revenue to the government.

by

What are all the exact problems faced by you in the United States?

by

Hi Dan,

I am not an expert, but this is what I believe is happening in the USA: Large corporations have given money to lobby Congress and even local legislatures, and they get laws passed that allow them to become very wealthy at the expense of the middle classes and the working classes. 

So the common people are much poorer than they were several decades ago, and the poor people and the working classes are becoming more desperate. I have never before in my life seen so much crime, for example. And the large companies tend to target vulnerable populations who cannot fight back, such as the elderly, especially the old folks who don't have much money. In Iowa, I saw old people just go into their apartment and die because they could not pay rent, could not buy essential medicine, could not get enough to eat after the corporation took over.

This does not list the exact problems, but it is a simplified overview. 

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Do they get the pension for the work they did? Does the Government provide basic health care for free?

by

Hi Dan,

Almost everybody has a small government pension, Social Security, but for MANY old people, it is not enough to live on. So they rely on government subsidized housing. But then the corporation comes in, and gets the laws changed so the old people can no longer afford the housing. The corporations can also make promises to the old people about low rent, but there are now laws so that the corporation can change its mind and break the promise even if it is in writing.

The government also has food programs for the elderly, but the food is often poor quality. And many old person need special diets for their health, but cannot get it.

And no, health care is not free. There is government health insurance for old people, called Medicare, but Medicare has deductibles and co-payments which old people must pay, and is very expensive so elderly cannot afford it.

In the past, the adult children would help their elderly parents, but now the working people are so desperate that the old poor people are still trying to help their grown children and grandchildren.

+1 vote
by

I am afraid that like in most cases, history keeps repeating itself, and it is a long and complicated one: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Venezuela 

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