The Failure Of Socialism In Venezuela

The soundbite criticisms of capitalism are legion, yet it’s harder to offer alternatives, aside from the vague notion of 'something else'. Despite the carnage of trying to socially engineer equality in the 20th century, nevertheless the myth persists that capitalist wealth creation is superfluous and money is readily available to a small number of elitists called a government under common ownership, who distribute, or simply print more paper. Ironically, the ones shouting the loudest against capitalism are often those dependent on the profits of capitalism to provide the welfare payments needed to keep them alive.

The lowest level of poverty was recorded in 1973 with only 11.1 percent of America living at or below the poverty line. In America at that time there were twenty-three million people falling into this category. Today there are still about thirty-six million people considered poor. This is almost fourteen percent of the population. The big cities saw a bigger decline also.

Did you know that Venezuela was one of the first colonies to gain their independence from Spain? At the time Venezuela was a Spanish ruled colony and the people of Venezuela felt that their government was ruling their colony terribly (Adelblue). The people were led by Simon Bolivar, whose nickname was “The Liberator” since he liberated Venezuela and worked with San Martin to liberate most of Northern South America (Adelblue). Venezuela declared their independence in 1810 and finally gained their independence after the Battle of Carabobo in 1821 (Minster). Three symbolic elements of the Venezuelan revolution are used to portray Simon Bolivar, the speech Simon gave to the Second National Congress in 1819 to encourage the type of government he had in mind, and the high taxation that was the main cause of the revolution (Ellis and Esler 705).

This will be as much a tale about the Venezuelan people as it is about a returning immigrant who knows his homeland largely from memories and media. Though my experiences have shaped my outlook, my intention is to enter the country as a neutral and impartial writer, cognizant of daily life, yet oblivious to the fiery political discourse which consumes too many discussions.

While numbers and statistics may change, poverty itself does not. It has been around for as long as one can remember and will be here for many more to come.

The “Bolivarian revolution” revolves around the rise of the leftest movement which started with Hugo Chavez, and soon many other leaders rose to the occasion. The sole purpose of this movement was to help Latin America get rid of dictators and reestablish under Simon Bolivar's ideals of making Latin America not a colony but a nation for the people residing in it. Now that Chavez is dead, I believe that he was able to complete Bolivar's conquest of freeing Latin America. Now that Chavez has passed away, he has left both good and bad implications, but I believe its more good than bad. “The real opposition to Chavez is from the United States which was so angry at the way that he built up a credible alternative to the U.S. idea of free trade with

Venezuela, located in the Latin American region, is a country that has been characterized by its abundance of oil reserve. A natural resource that has shaped the history and development of the country, affecting its economic, social and most important is political spheres. For many years Venezuela was controlled by authoritarian regimes. The country, being very important in the sense of geo-politics due to its abundance of oil, has been a key player in the international arena and most important, to those that for many years kept the country under their regime. It was not until 1958 that Venezuela experienced the change to democracy and a stable democracy was kept between the two main political parties of the time, Accion Democratica (AD)

Issue: In Venezuela, the United Socialist Party (PSUV) has been in the power 18 years first with Chavez and them with Maduro, both elected by democratic elections. Now the country is divided into two significant groups Chavistas, people who support socialism and the actual president, and opposition, people anti-government and believe the corruption of the actual president. With this, the country is immersed in extreme violence, constants violations of humans rights and alarm power corruption. Additionally, some problems that the dictatorship produces like protests, the end of commercial relations with other countries, and the decreasing economy. The abuse of power leading to incrust the violations of humans right is the significant issue that Venezuela has to face today. This has an extended history that began in 1999, with the victory of Chavez in the name of socialism, but the break in the government started when Maduro raises in power and with the end of relations with the United States, who was the principal oil buyer. As well, the counting falling oil prices had decreased the Venezuela’s economy and limited the public inversion that the government used to do. With bad relations and an affected economy poverty, violence and discomfort with the government began. The corrupt power and constant violation of human rights are affecting in significant ways the country, particularly in the investment that the government

Poverty is the state of being extremely poor, and having a deficiency in essential needs. According to recent estimates, in 2013, 10.7 percent of the world’s population lived on less than US$1.90 a day, compared to 12.4 percent in 2012. That’s down from 35 percent in 1990. When you think about those numbers, that is a very positive improvement for only one year. Nearly 1.1 billion people have moved out of extreme poverty since 1990. In 2013, 767 million people lived on less than $1.90 a day, down from 1.85 billion in 1990. In contrast to the shorter change in poverty from 2012 to 2013, the 23 year period of the world attempting to bring people out of poverty has been wildly successful.

More recently it seems that most profit lies in company-wide specialization, and the avant-garde of most industries lies entirely in individual companies working towards their own goals. In fact, recently competition has been avoided amongst very large companies, as it is more profitable to exploit the consumer by limiting their options. When the consumer has few to no options, there is little incentive to invest in the improvement of services. Capitalism can be both a catalyst and a hinderance for improvements, and it would be disingenuous to assume socialism couldn’t at least match capitalism in this regard. For example in socialistic societies, financial sustainability wouldn’t be a concern for freelance or employed thinkers. The idea that capitalism is holistically superior innovatively stems from capitalism’s omnipresence on a global scale. The ex post facto attribution of innovative technology to capitalism is a post hoc ergo propter hoc

As citizens of the United States, we are members of the leading capitalist economy in the world. Our production and distribution is mostly done privately and we operate in a “profit” or “market” system. The capitalist system has been a target for criticism throughout the last three hundred years and is being discussed now more than ever due to the recent recession and financial crisis (Shaw and Barry n.d., 1). Its effects,

Capitalism started up as a system of investing and sharing money in order to increase the value of resources in the future. Capitalism was just an economic system, but then soon turned into a complex system of ethical practices. Harari defines capitalism as, “a set of teachings about how people should behave, educate their children and even think” (Harari 314). This economic system evolved along with the people that were endorsing it. Capitalism enables the rich to get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer. There are many benefits to capitalism, but there are downfalls as well, and these downfalls tend to be masked because of the rapid speed capitalists grow at. Harari first presents a definition for capitalism, and soon goes into great detail on why capitalism, while fast paced and unforgiving, is able to stand unwavered while other productions fail.

“Gloria al Bravo Pueblo” (Glory to the courageous humans) became adopted as Venezuela’s countrywide anthem through President Antonio Guzmán Blanco on May 25, 1881. The lyrics had been written via the physician and journalist Vicente Salias in 1810. The tune changed into later composed by way of musician Juan José Landaeta. It is also called La Marsellesa Venezolana.

From 1970 to 1997, humanity was solving the starvation problem worldwide. The amount of hungry people had dropped from 959 million to 791 million, which is a total decrease of 168 million people. This decrease is

Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves and by 1960, it became the wealthiest country in Latin America. Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state owned company, was the key to economic and social development in Venezuela under president Hugo Chavez. His government was settled in an environment where the oil prices were rising and the economy was booming, so he was able fund social programs and practices that were popular to the poor masses. This wealthy and growing Venezuela made Chavez to be very popular and his regime very powerful. Oil revenue accounted for nearly 90% of exports, more than 50% of government revenue, and 35% of country’s GDP.