GM says Venezuela has seized its car plant

[slowandeasy]

Atta boy

I think we could use the phrase "to fuji" which would mean to stubbornly double down on an idiotic point.....

I guess you did not get the memo that was sent out last year..

 

[SuperCharge]

Death toll at 20 in Venezuela protests.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-fata...st-venezuelan-capital-official-130549578.html

 

[fuji]

Atta boy

I think we could use the phrase "to fuji" which would mean to stubbornly double down on an idiotic point.....

All sputter. No content.

 

[Aardvark154]

It speaks volumes as to what Chavezism has done to Venezuela when there is a food shortage and a shortage of cane sugar.

 

[slowandeasy]

It speaks volumes as to what Chavezism has done to Venezuela when there is a food shortage and a shortage of cane sugar.

Just to be clear, Chavez and Maduro did not do this by themselves. They had hundreds of thousands,maybe even millions who supported them and bought into socialism. The system is
broken not just because of Chavez, but because many many many people in Venezuela made bad choices. I feel badly for them, but we have to learn from their mistakes.

Its interesting that some people are comparing Venezuela leaders to Trump. There are some similarities when you come to nationalism, and protectionism, and maybe a few other isms that I have not thought about. However, my concern is that we in Canada seem to be moving to the same type of nanny state that created Venezuela. We are relying more and more on government handouts and economic stimulus to drive our economy, and our governments seem to think they have an endless supply of money/credit.

 

[fuji]

Generous social programs AREN'T what sunk Venezuela. It was the direct Government interference in the economy that sunk them.

Things like the government legislating what prices should be, and trying to fix the exchange rate. Canada is not moving in that direction.

The biggest fuckup in Venezuela and the one that single-handedly crushed them was the destruction of the oil industries. Chavez nationalized it, then he fired the engineers and managers who understood how to run an oil company and replaced them with political appointees who had no fucking clue. They failed to invest in or repair infrastructure and literally ran the facilities into the ground.

Even when the price of oil was high Venezuela was struggling with its oil industry barely making a profit. When oil prices fell their only major industry collapsed.

 

[slowandeasy]

A lack of even a basic understanding (note basic does not mean little or none) of financial and business management is what sunk Venezuela.
It was pie in the sky BS that the masses bought into including but not limited to overly generous social programs.. Its very simple, you cannot spend money that you dont have.

 

[fuji]

I agree that the government in Venezuela was supported in its poor choices by many people. That's the danger of populism, and really, populism is how democracies fail.

You get a leader who riles people up by telling them their hard life is the fault of greedy elites and outsiders and promises to fix things by cracking down on them. Gets into power and actually does some of these crazy things. When it blows up then still manages to stay in power by continuing to blame the elites and outsiders.

For Chavez his "Make Venezuela great again" campaign was all about blaming Americans, shadowy capitalist elites, and oil companies. He convinced everybody that Venezuela's problems were being caused by conspiracies by foreigners to get rich off Venezuelans. When his own changes harmed the economy be blamed capitalists, Americans, and a CIA conspiracy instead of his own dumb economic policies.