Venezuela's 'Plan Rabbit' encounters 'cultural problem'

[Forty Two]

Soylent green the socialists lol.

But seriously, socialism always fails when it runs out of rich people to rob.

No no, Tyrannical. Venezuela WAS socialist - a great socialist experiment - when the news reported everything going well in the relatively new Chavez regime. It stopped being socialism when it got all cocked up. Socialism works, because things that don't work aren't socialism.

[cronus]

Soylent green the socialists lol.

But seriously, socialism always fails when it runs out of rich people to rob.

No no, Tyrannical. Venezuela WAS socialist - a great socialist experiment - when the news reported everything going well in the relatively new Chavez regime. It stopped being socialism when it got all cocked up. Socialism works, because things that don't work aren't socialism.

Price of oil. Not sure how it could call itself socialist when its economy was so dependant on international markets?

[mistermack]

It's a danger when a country gets used to oil money. They get reliant on imports, instead of encouraging a healthy home industry of food production.
If they had taxed imported food, and subsidised home production, they would be ok now.

Cuba has survived decades of sanctions, but they really have pushed home industries from day one, as they didn't have the oil reserves like Venezuela.

Instead of rabbiting on about it, they should be finding ways to make domestic food production pay.
One way would be to establish state wholesalers, who have the ability to check where the food was produced, and pay a premium on home produced stuff. They could then sell it at a loss, as a subsidy, to individuals and shopkeepers.
You would have to have stringent checks to ensure that people didn't try to sell the stuff back again in a fraudulent circle. And make sure it didn't get exported. But with severe penalties and strict checks, it could be made to work.
Another way would be to give direct payments to food producers for the amount they produce, provided it didn't get sold for export.

It's too late now to tax imported food, when food is scarce.

[Strontium Dog]

Soylent green the socialists lol.

But seriously, socialism always fails when it runs out of rich people to rob.

No no, Tyrannical. Venezuela WAS socialist - a great socialist experiment - when the news reported everything going well in the relatively new Chavez regime. It stopped being socialism when it got all cocked up. Socialism works, because things that don't work aren't socialism.

Price of oil. Not sure how it could call itself socialist when its economy was so dependant on international markets?

If socialism means anything, it surely means you are always dependent on other people.

[pErvinalia]

Soylent green the socialists lol.

But seriously, socialism always fails when it runs out of rich people to rob.

Another one who misunderstands how an economy works.

[pErvinalia]

I mean their timing and planning was better and they were able to take advantage of high oil prices. I believe their trillion is invested in all sorts of places - including UK government bonds.

..all of which in Crumpleland is about to fall into the deep dark place where resides your heart.

They got lucky (at least for now). Investment is gambling. Twice so when it's high finance. You took acid one time too many and need to instil order on things but really there is no order.

There's certainly none in evidence in the coherence of your posts..

[Forty Two]

Soylent green the socialists lol.

But seriously, socialism always fails when it runs out of rich people to rob.

No no, Tyrannical. Venezuela WAS socialist - a great socialist experiment - when the news reported everything going well in the relatively new Chavez regime. It stopped being socialism when it got all cocked up. Socialism works, because things that don't work aren't socialism.

Price of oil. Not sure how it could call itself socialist when its economy was so dependant on international markets?

I don't know - when Chavez was new, the reporting and commentary was all about how is Chavez style socialism was the bees knees. It's like when Bernie Bros go around touting European socialism as the way to go. Something must be socialist. Nowadays, folks like to say that the Soviet Union wasn't socialist, China wasn't socialist, Yugoslavia, Romania, etc., they weren't socialist - Cuba isn't socialist. Nothing is socialist, because any country calling itself socialist seems to fall apart economically. Socialism can't be a failure. It's just that real socialism hasn't been tried.

[JimC]

Well I don't say that, 42. Venezuela's brand of socialism took the worst aspects of that ideology, and merged it with ego-driven populism, corruption and a dependency on a single market. In other places, minus the corruption, judiciously taking some aspects of socialism can work...

[Scot Dutchy]

It also went on the premise that oil price would be consistently high and that the oil would be owned by Venezuela which it is not.