It has been less than two months since I visited Caracas, Venezuela. While things were already very bad when I was there, they are now worse.

Power shortages have deepened (and this in an oil rich country!); food is becoming scarce (some people have resorted to eating dogs and cats); people lie on concrete slabs in hospitals without medicine (if you thought medical care was bad, just wait until it’s free!); and riots and looting are growing worse.

I went to see the end stages of socialism, complete with hyperinflation. I wanted to see where Europe and the US are headed.

In hindsight, it was shocking to see how few people in Venezuela understood what was going on.  You’d think in this day and age, they’d just watch a few Youtube videos (like some of ours) and realize the reality: Almost all their problems are a direct result of government and central banking.

Yet, hardly anyone understood.  Your average person was miserable, that was for sure.  But they didn’t know what was causing their misery.

I didn’t find much interest in gold and silver, let alone much buying, even though it was obviously a good idea.  And, forget bitcoin. No one knew what it was… except for the government that predictably has banned it.

Bizarrely, large parts of Caracas still hang pictures of Hugo Chavez and still consider him to be a hero!

I met a few people who were open to rational discussions. They were making about about $20 a month and could barely survive.

“Why don’t you go somewhere else?” I asked them. “Colombia is close.  And Trinidad & Tobago,  Aruba,  Argentina or Chile.  All with economies that are functioning and sometimes doing very well.”

The general response was, “I don’t know anyone there.”

Very strange. Why choose to live in squalor and desperation just because the environment is familiar to you?

This is a mentality I often see in America.  Elsewhere, too.  Stressed, people have a tendency to live like serfs, never venturing far from their birthplace.

It’s really not necessary in this era of the internet. Spend five minutes on Facebook and you know some people.

In fact, our global reach includes  TDV Groups (also known as the Vigilante Expat Network).  If you’re a subscriber, you can converse with other dollar vigilantes anywhere in the world. They are a great bunch. I know from experience, they’ll practically pick you up at the airport and help you get situated if you decide to visit or move.

It’s just one of the many benefits of being a Dollar Vigilante newsletter subscriber (see more here).

The scary thing about Venezuela is that all the conditions already exist, and are nearly the same, in Europe right now.  And the only difference between where the US is headed and Venezuela, is the US hasn’t outlawed guns… yet.  Otherwise whatever I saw and experienced in Venezeula was already familiar to me from my travels in the US and Europe. (It’s one reason I got out and went to live in Acapulco.)

I was in Venezuela seven years ago and it was generally fine.  A beautiful place to visit full of bustling shops, restaurants, bars and hotels.  Two months ago when I returned, I was visiting the murder capital of the world. As I wrote, we had to carry backpacks of money to pay for lunch at the few restaurants that were open. We were told to not wear sunglasses or use our mobile phones or we’d get robbed. Our hotel barricaded the doors at night to keep criminals out.

Venezuela: Meet the destiny of Europe and the US.

Both Europe and the US are already tumbling further into socialism.  Nearly half of all millennials in the US say they like socialism over capitalism.

Just look at Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize winner in Economics (Keynesian/Globalist economics that is), who is one of the most respected economists in the US… He wrote The Price of Inequality and, excuse me as I hold back from vomiting, Making Globalization Work.  He’s also the former vice-president of the World Bank.

“Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez appears to have had success in bringing health and education to the people in the poor neighborhoods of Caracas, to those who previously saw few benefits of the countries oil wealth,” he said.

In his latest book “Making Globalization Work,” Stiglitz argues that left governments such as in Venezuela, “have frequently been castigated and called ‘populist’ because they promote the distribution of benefits of education and health to the poor.”

“It is not only important to have sustainable growth,” Stiglitz continued during his speech, “but to ensure the best distribution of economic growth, for the benefit of all citizens.”

And, look at this tweet from one of the top politicians in England from only three years ago!

The West is headed the way of Venezuela. In fact, it’s all part of the Globalist one world socialist government plan being quickly put into place this Jubilee Year.

You can see it in Europe, where unrestrained Islamic immigration is being aimed at creating chaos within established cultures. And in the US, where the possibility of a Hillary victory would firmly establish a Venezuela-style paradise.

This Jubilee Year is all about putting in place the final foundation for the world’s oncoming globalism. Venezuela is just a little bit ahead of the curve. For a video on this Jubilee Year and its growing damages, please see HERE. And for our White Paper, please see HERE.

I had the opportunity to interview one of the only anarcho-capitalists in Venezuela for my program, Anarchast.  It took us nearly two months to put it live because I insisted on paying Daniel to translate it. It took him nearly two months because of the nearly constant power outages.

Have a look at this conversation I had with one of the few people in Venezuela who understands economics. See how quickly things fall apart under socialism and how the US, Europe, and many other places in the West are not far behind following Venezuela’s path:

245 Comments on "Venezuela Descends Into Chaos… Europe and US Next"

Hello on Mon, 23rd May 2016 5:53 am 



>>>> Stressed, people have a tendency to live like serfs, never venturing far from their birthplace.

Have you visited London or Los Angeles or Frankfurt or Zurich or Madrid or Chicago or Paris or Milano lately? Idiot.

sidzepp on Mon, 23rd May 2016 6:03 am 



Perhaps the failure of Venezuela can be attributed to the fact that the BAU community does not like the fact that leaders like Chavez, who desired to prevent the masses from being raped by the powers that be, decided to punish the people of Venezuela and any other country that strives for equality and fairness. The few think they know what is best for the masses.
This article sounds like it came from a flag waving, gun toting, bible thumping nut job living in an anti-bellum fairy tale land and wondering what has happened to the world in the last century and a half.

onlooker on Mon, 23rd May 2016 6:31 am 



You got that right Sid, you can be sure a fair amount of interference and obstruction was happening on the part of US and others to impede this stranglehold of Socialism in the Americas and to wit with lots of oil. Of course a few more factors play in like low price oil and incompetence by the economic team in Venezuela but the fact of that matter is Capitalism does not improve the lot of the Poor and disenfranchised either.

Davy on Mon, 23rd May 2016 6:40 am 



This author lack his own understanding of what is coming by referencing socialism and capitalism. The real “ism” issue is globalism and modernism. Globalism pretty much usurps all other isms making them nothing more than different shades of grey. If you want to escape globalism influence go to North Korea or the ISIS controlled sand box areas. Yet even these areas survive because they are leaches on globalism. Globalism is about flows and nodes of influence. The flows are resources and products all underwritten by money and influence. This influence in military and financial.

Modernism is the other leg. It is the technology and the fossil fuel driven energy intensity. That allows the far flung production and distribution. It allows the networking and the vast financial connections that allow trade and confidence of payment and delivery.

Venezuela is many things that broke down. It is a complicated country caught in an unfortunate descent into corruption and decay that eventually got magnified by low oil prices and climate change induced electric shortages.

Chavismo made the mistake of thinking it could do it its way and not the global way. Multinational companies were nationalized and badgered with onerous business arrangements. Its oil cash cow was bleed instead of invested in. You can’t go against globalism even with oil riches. You especially don’t want to rely on oil because of its nasty habit of wild price changes over time

Venezuela is a poster child of collapse. We must look to them for what is coming to the rest of the global system. We are not going to know the when, how much, where, and who’s next of global collapse because the variables are too diverse. But we can see the results of collapse both economic and social in places like Venezuela. We need to learn from this because we have never witnessed a global and modern collapse. Even with the Venezuelan collapse it will not be the real thing because the global system is not in a full blown crisis of collapse. It is only in the beginning of the collapse process. Imagine Venezuela but without resupply and transport in and out like a functioning global system allows.

What we need to be doing is trying to stabilize Venezuela to save our own skin. They are a critical oil producing nation and if their oil production goes off line we have just another serious destabilizing force to a globalism already in a collapse process. Our global economy is a house of cards coming apart. It is not going to take much to shake it apart. Venezuela is one of the structural cards that will start the cards tumbling.

makati1 on Mon, 23rd May 2016 6:45 am 



“Venezuela Descends Into Chaos… Europe and US Next”

Yep! All of the signs are there and becoming more and more obvious as the days pass. The EU is about ready to break up int it’s old countries and currency. The “American way of life” is dead for the 99%. I could list 100 articles from foreign sources supporting my assertion, but few here would bother to read them. You either see it yourself already or you deny it. That 2X4 of reality is getting awful close to the denier’s face. LOL

anthony bucceri on Mon, 23rd May 2016 8:28 am 



I think you are all nuts to think that socialism can possibly work because it don’t. Why don’t you move to the countries that think it works and see how fast you return. Everyone of us have been spoiled over the years to our style of life. Tha don’t come with socialism, it comes with capitalism and a free and aggressive society that has amitions and makes them work. With socialism everyone shares a pot of gold and there no longer exists any ambition of any type and eventually all research ends for a lack of desire and ambition that is attached to it. You people talk like fools because you have never lived the lives of those who have in socialism and eventually to keep order the governments take away freedoms. That is your projected future with a socialist form of government.

JuanP on Mon, 23rd May 2016 8:39 am 



I couldn’t read this crap. Socialism bad, capitalism good! Stupid is as stupid writes.

Davy on Mon, 23rd May 2016 8:47 am 



Anthony go to Europe and see a much healthier society than the aggressive capitalism of the US and lately China. Europe is now failing but so is the US and China so your point lacks strength.

There was a time when the global pie was growing socialism provided a more equitable and stable society. Capitalism has always been about wealth inequalities trickling down which doesn’t happen in a shrinking pie. In a shrinking pie the social fabric gets gutted as we are seeing now in the US and China.

ROGELIO ANASAGASTI SR on Mon, 23rd May 2016 8:49 am 



If this asshole won a Nobel prize I can not wait to tell OBAMA THE BLACK KID WITH ATTITUDE BERNIE SANDERS THE OLD WITH DEMENTIA AND CROOKED HILLARY AND BILL YOU ALL CAN GO TO HELL. DO NOT FORGET CHAVEZ AND MADURO THE SCUM OF THE EARTH. THAT IS WHY I WANT TO SEE TRUMP AS PRESIDENT. I AM PROUDLY POLITICALLY INCORRECT. HURRAH !!!!

ghung on Mon, 23rd May 2016 8:54 am 



anthony bucceri said; I think you are all nuts to think that socialism can possibly work because it don’t.”

Who here, exactly, has posited that “socialism can possibly work”? Make a list and get back to us, Anthony. Otherwise, STFU.

Most folks here are either fully invested in ‘capitalist’ systems, or understand that all forms of complex top-down systems are beginning to fail. In my case, I think most humans will be living in some form of totalitarian feudalism or tribalist societies within a century, if there are many of us left.

ronasch on Mon, 23rd May 2016 8:59 am 



Migrating is stupid. Migrants are not wanted anywhere and whenthe USA breaks up we will kill them. My stupid mother was an immigrant who was never wanted or accepted

makati1 on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:06 am 



The Us is already socialist:
Unemployment insurance
Food Stamps
Medicare
Medicaid
Social Security
SSI
Tax credits
Housing assistance
Pell grants
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Child Nutrition
Head Start
Job Training Programs
WIC
Child Care
LIHEAP
Lifeline
Etc.
http://federalsafetynet.com/us-welfare-programs.html

If that is not socialism, what is?

onlooker on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:07 am 



“Migrating is stupid.” That statement is stupid. You think people just get up and go for the fun of it. They go because for whatever reason they can live where they currently live. As for wanted that depends on the resources available where they are going and yes prevailing attitudes about newcomers.

D Linc on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:12 am 



Socialism is not the problem. We have had socialist programs in the United States for 75 years since JP Morgan and greedy capitalist tried to bring the proletariat to their knees. For those who don’t like socialism, perhaps you liked it better when we had the great depression?
Venezuela is basically a 3rd world country blessed with oil that tried to pretend they could be a modern country. It didn’t work and now that oil has collapsed their government and economy is going down with it. This is not a legitimate example to compare to Europe or the US. Just another myopic uneducated opinion by a hack economist.

makati1 on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:15 am 



With the exception of Native Americans, ALL Americans were immigrants at one time. Mine came over in 1734. Otherwise, I would speak German and be under Fuehrer Merkel. LOL

Elsa Casanova on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:21 am 



You are ALL wrong! I am Venezuelan and I am presently living this hell. First of all, if you review immigration laws in all countries, a person cannot just decide to go somewhere else to live. Second, Venezuela has had free education at ALL levels from almost the beginning of the last century. Chavez had nothing to do there. Third, the electrical power production system in Guri was planned for III stages with a power production capacity to satisfy even the neighboring island countries like Aruba and Curazao. Fourth, the governing group is minuscule and totally warped who have done away with the agricultural, manufacturing and commercial systems. They have not invested one single penny on maintenance. Thus this is the result. No fancy words, no “systems” just a bunch of crooks seeking to make their bank accounts larger.

Elena Revo on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:21 am 



Let me just remind you all socialist, income equality, spread the wealth lovers that Hugo Chavez was an average guy with zero wealth after 16 years in power he died with over three “Billion” US Dollars in the bank, his daughter now days is one of the wealthiest women in the entire world and definitely the wealthiest in Venezuela. The country in in ruins an starving oh but they have “Patria” you all make me want to puke!

Dan Wallace on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:22 am 



socialism has been attempeted 167 in modernish history …all attempts failed . The unfortunate reality is that people are what mess up any plans. Greed wins

joe on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:26 am 



Oh not this stupid ‘socialism doesnt work’ rubbish. Its working just fine in Germany, Scandinavia, China, and the good old USA, where companies (who are legally people too) get more tax breaks and government handouts than just about anywhere in the world.

reasonable person on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:26 am 



This writer has not left the deep south and reads conservative garbage and then writes lies, so idiotic

onlooker on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:27 am 



Thank you Elsa and Elena for your first hand accounts of what is going on there. I pray for everyone in Venezuela and hope somewhat the situation there can improve.

onlooker on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:28 am 



Oh and from the accounts of Elsa and Elena what you have in Venezuela is not Socialism but a Kleptocracy

JuanP on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:30 am 



Ronasch “Migrating is stupid.”
If migrating is stupid then so am I. Unfortunately for you, fucktard, I have been tested multiple times and I have the IQ of a genius with an average over 150. I, personally, don’t care much for IQ tests, but they do provide a baseline. You seem to be a really, really stupid person and if you think your mother was stupid because she migrated then you are also a fucking prick. How do you like them apples, fucktard!

Bob Smith on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:32 am 



Thinking Venezuela was a great place before Chavez, shows that people are not up on their history. As long as oil prices where up, Leaders could fund Socialism. Venezuela has been a socialist basket case since the 1800’s. Dictators, Military strong men, and various corrupt leaders, have raped pillaged and plundered Venezuela, using oil revenues, Tourism, and Export dollars to keep the masses in line. Those three capitalist areas are now gone and the socialist life is beginning to crumble. Socialism is killing America brought on by LBJ and democrats in the sixties with his socialist “Great Society”. America is being drug down into the socialist PC world of giving everybody everything they wish for.

mark soyer on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:32 am 



Bottom Line:whatever economic system (s) are in place the government needs to fiscally responsible.
Spending must be curtailed based on funds or likelihood of funds being available to pay. Venezuela leaders did not understand or foresee this truth. Heart first impulses without financial integrity was the recipe for the current disaster.

JuanP on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:32 am 



Mak, At least in that you are like most Americans! Though I think you are exceptional in many ways. 😉
https://www.google.com/search?q=us+ancestry+map&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS590US590&oq=us+ancestry&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l3.6616j0j7&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=QFFH83WS34estM%3A

Art on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:33 am 



As you all can see with Cuba, The Socialist Communist systems does not work, and Russia, and China never did anything in Cuba to show the whole World the Communist systems does not work, plain and simple more than 50 years to prove thier system and it did not do it, the world is changing for the better and the very rich people better change and make sure there is no hunger any where in the world, and control birth of Humans are to be in place

VALERIE BENSON on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:35 am 



There is no simple answer. With the on-going full china syndrome meltdowns of Fukushima reactors now for 5 years- we are all DOOMED from the release of over 2,000 radioactive isotopes directly in plumes in the altitudes that planes cruise at Wigner effect on planes the destruction of metal . why air craft are falling apart and then the dumping 24/7 of 500 tons of radioactive contaminated water directly into the Pacific ocean . It has destroyed the biggest ocean Pacific on planet. do NOT eat any fish from Pacific contaminated with radioactive cesium 134 and 137. Tuna and salmon. people are NOT being told the truth about the collapse of the fishing industry and that the salmon are compromised on the west coast. The Japanese people are under draconian secrecy laws forbidding the journalists and news people to discuss Fukushima. They can now gho to prison. It is absolute genocide and the Olympics should be canceled. Cesium goes to the heart muscle. check out Yoichi Shimatsu Japanese journalist and look up Japanese physicist Michio Kaku: End of Humanity Youtube. We are arguing over nonsensical distractions while the fate of the human race has been sealed with nuclear death via Fukushima!We should use the trillions of dollars from the nuclear energy department to fix our country and not build devices as Einstein put it : It is a very expensive an inefficient way to boil water!” Wake up people! It is not global warming but the contamination of our eco system via Fukushima!

Art on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:36 am 



The more poor they are the more Humans they produce, these people dont know any better, but to have sex and get pregnan and keep on been poor, so the inteligents of the world better do something about it if they want to have a better future

Gary Michael on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:37 am 



How did you get this article published? There is absolutely no research done nor any evidence of a sound geopolitical basis for what you say? I could go on and on but suffice it to say this is rubbish. Its this kind of journalism that confounds me and I don’t blame you, your lost, I blame the people who publish this nonsense.

VAL BENSON on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:38 am 



There is no simple answer. With the on-going full china syndrome meltdowns of Fukushima reactors now for 5 years- we are all DOOMED from the release of over 2,000 radioactive isotopes directly in plumes in the altitudes that planes cruise at Wigner effect on planes the destruction of metal . why air craft are falling apart and then the dumping 24/7 of 500 tons of radioactive contaminated water directly into the Pacific ocean . It has destroyed the biggest ocean Pacific on planet. do NOT eat any fish from Pacific contaminated with radioactive cesium 134 and 137. Tuna and salmon. people are NOT being told the truth about the collapse of the fishing industry and that the salmon are compromised on the west coast. The Japanese people are under draconian secrecy laws forbidding the journalists and news people to discuss Fukushima. They can now gho to prison. It is absolute genocide and the Olympics should be canceled. Cesium goes to the heart muscle. check out Yoichi Shimatsu Japanese journalist and look up Japanese physicist Michio Kaku: End of Humanity Youtube. We are arguing over nonsensical distractions while the fate of the human race has been sealed with nuclear death via Fukushima!We should use the trillions of dollars from the nuclear energy department to fix our country and not build devices as Einstein put it : It is a very expensive an inefficient way to boil water!” Wake up people! It is not global warming but the contamination of our eco system via Fukushima!

Darryl Brill on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:43 am 



If you were here before 1776 technically you are a settler not an immigrant!

noobtube on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:49 am 



How can you have a Central bank and claim to be any different than the United States?

The American Central Bank system is excellent at turning prosperity into poverty if you are not racially superior.

Almost every government on the planet is using this crooked system except…

Afghanistan

Iraq

Sudan

Libya

Cuba

North Korea

Iran

Dan on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:50 am 



Come to Cuba with me, I dont visit the tourist places. Let go and talk to the general population ask them what 50 years of socialism has gotten the, I agree education is better and more accessible, but if you can only put you skills to work for the government. My cousin is a medical doctor, she barely get by on the $30.00 monthly stipend she receives, she still lives in here mothers house, with dirt floors, the hurricane devastated the home, , no government assistance, was given to her to help her in her time of need.
This the norm in Cuba, most people just get by, those lucky enough to have family in the US far better as they can have money and goods sent to them.
Venezuela, will be over thrown, the fate of president Madoro will no be a pretty one.

noobtube on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:54 am 



Cuba is suffering because it is the United States blocked them from the Central Bank System Cartel.

My list is old.

The only countries without a Central Bank in 2016 are

Cuba

North Korea

Iran

And, now the United States is trying to dig its claws into Cuba with the goal of putting a Central Bank there too!

That way the United States can turn Cuba into Venezuela or Brazil… a vassal state to steal all of its resources and make a playground for the racial superiors.

JuanP on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:55 am 



I think this thread has gone viral somewhere cause we have a lot of new people here.

PracticalMaina on Mon, 23rd May 2016 9:56 am 



Now Cuba gets to be a poor nation, with a ton of extra pollution and demand on resources from tourist…hooray.

Pavle I. Premovic on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:07 am 



Venezuela mon amour, as long as I am alive.

Mr. Keeping it Real on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:23 am 



I stopped reading when i got to the part that said “The scary thing about Venezuela is that all the conditions already exist, and are nearly the same, in Europe right now. ”

What a ridiculous comment. Either this person doesn’t know what is going on in Venezuela or doesn’t know what is going on in Europe.

Martin Kelly on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:25 am 



Hybrid forms of socialism can work; a totally socialistic society that inevitably inhibits ambition has never worked except on paper.

latinoamericano on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:27 am 



To all of you: all politicians in control of Venezuela have been stealing,looting the country for 15 years. They created and increased taxes ridiculously to the few national companies, they made them go bankrupt.(WHY??)

All of these politicians have money and properties all over the world including family attending foreign universities while their country is a chaos. They went to power with the idea of stealing, not improving………..they are not intellectually prepared to govern but to steal.
The few opposing to this government had to exiled themselves or die.Add to this 100000 reach Venezuelans fleeing their country like cowards instead of getting together and kick this government out, the ones staying can not do anything of course because their police and army have been bought(bribed) for 15 years.
This is a modern dictatorship government giving away money while their people have been suffering for years.

It is time to get them out for good and ever. I hope Venezuelans remember this and not repeat the History again. They got used to easy money from oil, and not investment for return at long term like farming, etc……

timk on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:29 am 



and supply side economics caused people to lose their homes and jobs.forced millions on to food stamps .the things that saves us is we change to match what ever thing comes along.we use every system in the united states .and it works.as far as taking guns away .the people that dont have guns now would get them if it came about.we may be headed that way but we will never get there.there are no die hard people cults that would cause a government that bad to stay that bad and in power in america.not trump clinton or sanders voters would fallow them to those ends.

TheGander on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:30 am 



We as immigrants have lived in America since 1889 (built the railroads in the West). Just in the last decade I see the “writing on the wall.” I worry for my children’s. Remember Greater Civilization’s have come and gone,what remains are the true “Survivor’s”. Like in the game “The Walking Dead,” can we make the hard choices and keep our humanity? I for one can. Fight the “good” fight. I bid you Peace.

onlooker on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:33 am 



Latin, what makes you think the Capitalists would be any better. You see what is happening in Mexico and Brazil and many other places in the world. The one thing we can be certain is that no form of ruling govt is good for the people. Power corrupts just like money. Eliminate money eliminate power structures and then maybe the long suffering people of this planet can truly be on a better path

makati1 on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:33 am 



Martin, nor has pure Capitalism. It is ALWAYS rigged to move money up to the top.

T.S. on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:34 am 



Good article, except for the bashing of socialism. A capital economy works best with an agrarian base that can adsorb the ‘dummies’ and retards, that means that the rural population has to be larger then the urban, or urban agriculture has to exist. In countries like Venezuela the rush to an economy without a solid agricultural base that is maintained (subsidized) chaos will ensue with failure of market supply in this very inelastic and basic need. The observed stability of the population, the want not to move has been observed through time and even in the USSR, people did not move and it was the bayonet and bullet that got them walking to the waiting cattle cars. In the Donbass, people had relatives and due to the soviet policies, were more adapted to moving, not having three generations of relatives in the same place; thus 2 million moved to Russia (the greatest successful mass mitigation of the 21st century). This was accomplished in a socialistic environment not an environment that was capitalistic.

Venezuela’s failure is one of relying on a capitalistic enterprise; oil export.. and trying to crate a socialistic state using an elastic product that has plenty of replacement to there they could not control the outcome so easily. The USSR was an economic fluke of western liberalization of export – import policy, a failed policy that has been re-created and applied in the last 120 years that is destroying the equity markets and sovereignty of the participating nations today. Capitalism leads to cronyism that leads to insolvency, due to bad lazy economic policy and failure to meat the needs of the people (as the rich think only for themselves in narcissistic unoriginal manner). QED
Marx theory is still alive and well… in a form the Mark and Engels would have liked to have seen, not the world of Stalin’s Russia, but evolved from, such)..

jay on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:36 am 



Why does it appear that socialism is bad only when it benefits the people but ok when it is benefits corporations in the form of bailouts and subsidies?

makati1 on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:36 am 



Also, Martin, have YOU tried to start a business, with non-family employees, in America lately? If you have you would know that TPTB do not make it easy with all of the regulations and permits and financial reporting BS. If that is entrepreneurial capitalism….

onlooker on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:36 am 



The secret is diffused decision making and accountability upon all decision makers. All power structures are corruptible and corrupt. A society utilizing Anarchy as organizational model is the only option.

Ravindau on Mon, 23rd May 2016 10:39 am 



The current Venezuelan leadership is definitely loony and corrupt, but your analysis reflects a set of absurd biases.

Are the causes of the problems the embracing of what you refer to as socialism or a combination of human nature and poverty? It’s not clear to me that the Venezuelan social and political infrastructure can, on any long term basis, support any kind of stable government.