What a failed state looks like: Venezuela

[Angel Eyes]

Then I must ask the question people used to ask when they found out I had no television; "but what do they do?!"

In Venezuela?  Kidnap and murder, mostly.

[Scout26]

The correlation between rich natural resources and poor economic outcomes has led to the term "the curse of natural resources" or "resource curse" in economic literature.

Which is a load of crap.   The reason that Venzuela went down the crapper so quickly is the same reason that all other Socialist Countries go down the crapper (at varying speeds).  Why should I work or contribute, when all I have to do is sit back and still get the same as everyone else ??  If I can't keep what I produce, then why produce at all ??

Socialist have no idea how to manage wealth or use it to create more wealth.  They view it as evil, when it is the greatest good that can happen.

[Ben]

Which is a load of crap.   The reason that Venzuela went down the crapper so quickly is the same reason that all other Socialist Countries go down the crapper (at varying speeds).  Why should I work or contribute, when all I have to do is sit back and still get the same as everyone else ??  If I can't keep what I produce, then why produce at all ??

Socialist have no idea how to manage wealth or use it to create more wealth.  They view it as evil, when it is the greatest good that can happen.

This is also why they weren't able to get the more difficult to reach oil on their own. People with the skills to do that can go and make six figures in most of the world. Why should they work for a bag of rice and five rolls of toilet paper per week? Plus they ran out of toilet paper there anyway.

[Angel Eyes]

Thread necro - happened across this tidbit:  starving Venezuelans break into a zoo, slaughter a horse, and eat it:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3745368/Desperate-Venezuelans-break-zoo-slaughter-horse-meat-country-s-crippling-economic-crisis-leaves-thousands-starving.html

And this:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article97304827.html

“There is nothing in Venezuela, nothing,” says Mendez, who lives in Coral Gables and edits an expat website, MiamiDiario. “On many days my family there can’t even find bread to buy.”