Destroying the subsidies that the previous governments had has made inflation worse in the short term but should improve it in the long term. He says this and people believe it, so they’re powering through the bad times awaiting the better times. In a way he’s in his honeymoon period, and some people like him better because he’s actually following through his policies instead of being all talk.
The state shouldn’t be in the business of killing people.
As long as Venezuelans keep blaming the US for Venezuela’s problems instead of looking inward, especially to their own corrupt government, things won’t get better for them.
Using the US as an external enemy is great for holding onto power but it doesn’t improve people’s lives. Transparency, democracy and accountability improve people’s lives. These are things most of Europe have and Venezuela does not. Venezuela has vastly different policies from center-left European countries and I’d know because I live in one.
You don’t have to defend China or Cuba because I don’t want to attack them. I wish Venezuela would be like China or Cuba. At least my family wouldn’t go without power, starve or die needlessly.
Maduro has to go, and chavistas need to stop blaming everyone but the government for their problems. But I suspect even after everyone has left and only chavistas remain, they’ll still blame someone else. Don’t encourage them.
As someone with several family members in Venezuela and many more who fled the country: The only awe inspiring thing about Maduro’s regime is how someone so incompetent and uncharismatic can stay in power this long.
Medicine is in short supply and if you want any chance of surviving a serious illness you go to private clinics, which always only accept dollars.
A 40 year old cousin of mine died because they didn’t have medicine that would have been in most hospitals in other countries. A 28 year old cousin of mine died of covid because there were no spots available in any clinic near her. My 60 year old uncle lost both his legs from a diabetes-linked infection because the state of his mental health didn’t allow him to take the meds prescribed by a private clinic at home and we didn’t have money to commit him.
Everyone there is fucked, even those who work for state companies.
A 35 year old cousin of mine worked for years for the state oil company and bought a very nice, big house in a brand new development. But when inflation was at infinity% and food was hard to get and she decided to leave the country for the sake of her children, she couldn’t sell her house for any amount of money to anyone, because everyone in the country was trying to leave(and still are, 6 years later).
If you want to keep believing that communism could possibly work before a post scarcity world, fine. I guess the fact you haven’t seen any communist country be socially liberal as well as having high wages for the average worker is just a byproduct of not trying it enough times. But if you want some shred of evidence that communism works don’t look to Venezuela. Look to Vietnam or China or something. Venezuelans are only saved from starvation thanks to oil and charity.
And if you want to paint the US as the source of all evils and praise those who do well while being cut off from it, then mention Cuba. They actually have some redeeming qualities.
But lower pension costs, and overall it saves money to allow people to smoke themselves to an early death. Even if you count the cost of their treatment, it’s cheaper than 20 extra years of pension payments. It’s a terrifying but sound economic policy.
I use Ecosia for the environmental aspect, not the privacy, so I’m gonna stay with it.
It’s unfortunate that he’s lived to be 95 and still hasn’t managed to swallow his ego and admit the Bosnian or Cambodian genocides happened. I guess the ideological blindness is just too strong.