Comment by tuna-piano | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tuna-piano | Hacker News Reader

Such a sad situation there. While traveling around latin America, especially Panama and Mexico, I met many Venezuelans who had left to find new lives. The stories they told of their families back in Venezuela were heartbreaking. It seems many of those with means to leave have already left. This also helps create a brain drain which further increases the problems there.

All of us in the developed world need to study and educate others on what the policies in Venezuela have done (no, it wasn't the weather, the evil corporations, oil prices or whatever other excuse of the week they claim). We need to ensure other countries do not go down this route.

Especially concerning to me is the popular support of Chavez/Maduro and these policies:

Jeremy Corbyn, Britain's Labour party leader tweeted: "Thanks Hugo Chavez for showing that the poor matter and wealth can be shared. He made massive contributions to Venezuela & a very wide world"(1)

In Spain, a political party gaining major support helped create the disastorous policies in Venezuela (2)

Please, those of you who support these types of policies - educate yourself on their effects. And take a look at the reverse, how well the average Chinese person has done as their economy has gone from control to free enterprise (3).

People vote with their feet. How many Panamanians and Mexicans are emigrating to Venezuela? How many people moved away from the special economic zones in China? How many of the desperate poor in Florida take rafts to go to the communist paradise of Cuba?

(1): https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/309065744954580992?l...

(2): http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/world/europe/venezuela-cas...

(3): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_GDP_of_China

A clarification on your point: specifically socialist economic policies (gov control of enterprise) are to blame. It's not as if the government decided to tax the rich to provide social welfare and then the country went into a downward spiral.

The main issues I think have been rampant government corruption under Chavez's cult of personality and the papering over of economic problems with oil money. There are many stories of Chavez basically buying votes with oil revenues. Having a huge source of essentially free money let the government operate like a sports star fresh out of college, buying expensive houses and cars, until the money dries up and they promptly go broke.

While the specific policies in Venezuela have definitely been a disaster, I don't think its prudent to use that as an argument in the "control to free enterprise" debate. Despite the existence of free enterprises, it is well within the power of the Chinese government to take over any enterprise when it wishes to.

The question is not if it is in the governments control to do something. Any of the western governments could take control of local enterprises.

The question is "do they?". Successful governments usually dont. China has many challenges to overcome and one is not attempting this strategy again.

Your post comes off as a ridiculous attempt to shape opinions. Just knowing the CIA has spent decades trying to destablize the Venezualian government instantly makes me suspend my judegements of who can be blamed for their current situation.

Yeah, it's possible that chavez's attempts at socialist policy created this. But having the intelligence agency of the most powerful nation in the world spend decades trying to fuck up your government might possibly have an impact, too.

Or maybe, the US doesn't want a new Zimbabwe in the backyard?

You are reaching. We can easily observe Vehezuelan policy decisions and their effect was easily predictable in advance. We don't need imaginary nefarious actors to explain this

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