[Social_Critic]

Poverty in Venezuela swells from 21.2% to 27.3% in one year

By the end of 2013, 1.8 million households faced poverty in the country, 416,326 more households than in the second half of 2012, according to the official National Statistics Institute

The number of households living in poverty in Venezuela jumped from 21.2% to 27.3% in one year, based on official data disclosed by the National Statistics Institute.

Overall, 1.48 million households lived in poverty in the second half of 2012. One year later, the figure totaled 1.89 million, based on the average household income.

The rise in poverty takes place after Venezuela's inflation hit 56% in 2013, which eroded households' income, pushing them into poverty.

http://www.eluniversal.com/economia/140 ... n-one-year

In other news

UN warns about looming recession in Venezuela

http://www.eluniversal.com/economia/140 ... -venezuela

Minimum wages up in the region, except for Venezuela

http://www.eluniversal.com/economia/140 ... -venezuela

Drop in Maduro's popularity threatens economic adjustments

http://www.eluniversal.com/economia/140 ... djustments

Entrenched PSUV elite hangs on

http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-p ... e-hangs-on

[lucky]

What's missing here is the definition of poverty that was used.

[Social_Critic]

What's missing here is the definition of poverty that was used.

That's right, the definition they use is the government's definition (the figure was reported by the national statistics office). But I want to point out the current 60% inflation isn't being matched by minimum wage increases and many Venezuelans work in the informal sector in which the minimum wage doesn't apply.

I think many of you PoFo members may also miss the significant news built into this statistics release: a government agency just released extremely damaging news for the president aka dictator, Nicolas Maduro. This tells me the government is splintering and the divisions we glimpse may be getting wider.

Maduro has demonstrated his incapacity and lack of ethics for over a year, and this bodes Venezuela is likely to see more protests, mass emigration, and possibly collapse like Somalia.

[redcarpet]

And how exactly are right wing policies supposed to change this?

[Social_Critic]

And how exactly are right wing policies supposed to change this?

A brief list off the top of my head: a new government would have to implement policies to reduce corruption and theft by regime politicians and the military, return the judiciary to an independent role, fix the exchange rate, reduce inflation, return nationalized properties to their owners so they can become productive again, roll back regulations the regime passed which have shut down industry and commerce and are causing unemployment, work to reduce the crime rate, which has quadrupled since the Chavistas took over, improve health and education services, fix the electric and water systems, and remedy (at least partially) the enviromental damage caused during the Chavez years.

After 15 years of reds in power Venezuela has been destroyed, and it won´t recover fully from chavismo. Too much money has been stolen, too much debt has been assumed, too much has been wrecked, and too many smart and educated Venezuelans have left the country.

[redcarpet]

return nationalized properties to their owners

Ah, privatisation, we know how well that works.

work to reduce the crime rate

Increased poverty will contribute to crime. You're a bit incoherent, sir

[Social_Critic]

Increased poverty will contribute to crime. You're a bit incoherent, sir

Poverty is increasing at this time, silly. The measures I propose will return a semblance of normality but it will take years to have Venezuela recover from the chaos and destruction taking place under Maduro and his Cuban masters.

There's also an interesting breakdown in the well known paradigm that poverty causes crime. During the early Chavez years, as oil prices increased and Chavez did hand out money to the poor with the surplus cash, poverty was REDUCED but crime INCREASED. Check the statistics if you wish.

What we are seeing now is a rather steep increase in poverty since Maduro took over after Chavez died, and an even steeper increase in crime. The way to fix the overall problem is regime change. The Venezuelan people with the help of peace loving peoples around the world may be able to kick Maduro out and send him into exile to live in Havana with his Cuban bosses.

A new leadership will then have to implement the measures I suggested with extreme care, under a government of national unity. National unity will be required because the die hard communists and mafias roaming the country will have to be captured and jailed. It's a nearly impossible job, but if we all unite we can destroy the cancer which has infected Venezuela.

[mum]

Ah, privatisation, we know how well that works.

Yes we do, increased productivity and lower prices for consumers.

Increased poverty will contribute to crime. You're a bit incoherent, sir

It's true. With more privatization and less currency debauchery the subsequent increase in productivity will decrease poverty and so decrease the crime rate.

[redcarpet]

Or rather, prices will rise & production will fall.

[mum]

Prices will rise ? In western capitalist counties the long term effect of the private ownership of production (and competition) is a lowering of prices.
What sort of computer can you get now for $1000 ? What sort of personal computer could you get 20 years ago for $1000 ? (hint, you couldn't buy a computer for less than $1000)

[JohnRawls]

Venezuela is a good example of an extreme society, both extreme Capitalism and Communism are NOT the ways to go. A Moderated policy between the both is the way to go. From personal experience of my family there is not much of a difference between Communism and Extreme Capitalism, they are both horrible. That's why social democracy trumps over both of them. Plus its steady development that you need, never expect things to change within 1 or 2 years. Give it several decades. Look at Estonia as an example of that.

[Rejn]

Estonia is your example of social democracy? It was under the Soviet system up until the collapse of the USSR, after which it became the most market-loving anti-communist country of the former Eastern Bloc.

[JohnRawls]

And we are moving away from that now, we have free education now etc. As I said me being a citizen of the most communist hating country and having experienced the bad sides of extreme capitalism can tell that its horrible. We are moving more social democrat basically we are not fully there but we are getting closer and closer. (I mean we technicaly can be considered social democrats depending on what you mean by that).

[Social_Critic]

Or rather, prices will rise & production will fall.

My analysis shows the economy eventually decays when the state owns the means of production and commerce. This has been observed in Venezuela over the last 15 years. If you bothered to look at the statistics before you try to argue you would definitely improve.

Venezuela´s Rice Production shot to hell by Chavez


Got milk? Venezuela often doesn't
Shortages of milk and other basic goods plague the middle-income country, and critics blame government expropriations.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/featur ... 50286.html

Venezuela food shortages: 'No one can explain why a rich country has no food'
Toilet paper, rice and coffee have long been missing from stores, as Venezuelan president blames CIA plot for chronic shortages
http://www.theguardian.com/global-devel ... ountry-cia

VENEZUELA STRUGGLES WITH SPORADIC FOOD SHORTAGES
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/venezuel ... -shortages

Analysis - Little investment, protests hit Venezuela metals output (2013 Article)

Sidor is Venezuela's largest steel company with an installed annual capacity of 5 million tonnes of liquid steel. But output nose-dived after it was nationalized in 2008. Officials blamed the fall in output on a severe energy crisis that hit the South American nation between 2009 and 2011 and forced the authorities to ration energy to the industry.

The blackouts were caused by a drought that cut hydropower production. Since then, the rains have returned and last year the government promised the sector would bounce back. It didn't. This month, a state commission that reports directly to Chavez visited Sidor seeking answers after production fell to 1.7 million tonnes in 2012 - less than half of what it produced in 2007, and the lowest level in 26 years.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/02/2 ... VB20130222

Want more?

[JohnRawls]

I mean the faults of Chaves is that he is a communist, there is nothing wrong with socialist program like health, education, subsidies etc But private ownership of the economy must exist because otherwise it can not function properly. Economic liberty must exist for the economy to function in the current world. Chavez destroyed economic liberty and hence the economic prosperity of Venezuela.

[Social_Critic]

Chavez destroyed economic liberty and hence the economic prosperity of Venezuela.

Chavez did a bit worse, he allowed a lot of crime and corruption. I won´t get too much into Chavez because he died a horrible death in a Cuban hospital back in late 2012. The focus should be on Maduro, who has taken a bad scenario and made it much much worse with his incredibly stupid moves.

[JohnRawls]

Corruption exists in all countries, it just depends how much you can steal if the country has a lot of money then you don't need to steal much to get rich that's my hones opinion atleast, you need to fight corruption but there is a limit of things that can be done regarding this. Having a good economy makes corruption less painful or harder. You can blame anybody for corruption but its a sign of a weak economy and a product of a weak economy not the other way around, Strong economies rarely have large corruption because then large thefts are obvious. This is in general though and under premise that the country doesn't tolerate corruption there are exceptions to the rule where corruption is instituted inside the system which is the case with North Korea for example and in general when the government lives off corruption not off salary/lobbying.

[Social_Critic]

John, Chavez created the mechanisms for corruption in a scale most people can't imagine. I could write a lengthy article about this topic. I think I have a fairly unique insight on the reasons why it happened:

1. The Cubans wanted to takeover Venezuela, this they did with Chavez' blessing because he felt he would end up as the bolivar of a union of nations which would include Cuba and Venezuela. What Chavez didn't realize was the Cuban plan to betray him. By allowing high level chavista officials to make millions in crooked deals the Cubans gained leverage because all these officials can be blackmailed. The Cuban g2 has agents digging dirt all over. This is what allowed them to take over Venezuela.

2. Chavez and Maduro and the Cubans overestimated PDVSA and its ability to make extra cash as prices skyrocketed.

[Solastalgia]

HEY MODS,

Doesn't the OP violate the new Latin American subforum rules for PoFo ( Rule #5 no cut and paste chop job w/o personal opinion). Pretty sure the new rules were made specifically for S_C, anyways, as he's been the only one spamming the Latin American forum for months now.

Due to the incredibly and illogically high number of spam threads in this forum

34 of the last 40 threads have been made by him, all of which are articles against Maduro (as S_C is an opposition promoter). I mean he, himself, admitted to being a propagandist in another thread...

[mum]

Considering the massive support for left on this forum, it would be hypocritical to prevent SC from posting. SC posts first hand accounts of events (among other sources) Does this not constitute relevant evidence for an argument ?