Venezuelan Unemployment Rate Drops

[Peace Patriot]

Venezuelan Unemployment Rate Drops

By EDWARD ELLIS - CORREO DEL ORINOCO INTERNATIONAL - 10/29/10

Source: Correo del Orinoco International

The president of the Venezuelan National Statistics Institute (INE), Elias Eljuri, reported last week that unemployment in Venezuela fell to 8.4% for the month of September, a difference of 1.2 points from the previous month.

According to Eljuri, the diminution represents a clear sign that the Venezuelan economy is in full recovery from a recession that had affected the nation due to the global financial crisis.

The official commented that the nation’s recovery has come “independent of the dictatorship of financial bodies like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank” and that the new numbers are the result of Venezuela’s “orientation towards an economic and social policy designed to decrease the unemployment rate”.

(MORE)

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5745
(my emphasis)

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If WE had "economic and social policy designed to decrease the unemployment rate," our compromising, almost-Republican Democratic Party leaders wouldn't be in such deep shit today. Of course, Diebold/ES&S probably had a lot to do with it, but neither has our party leadership done anything about THAT.

In Venezuela, they have TRANSPARENT vote counting, in honest, above-board, internationally certified elections, and IT SHOWS.

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[social_critic]

1. Baloney - can't believe anything the governent of Venezuela say

There's no recovery - here's a quote from the same guy about the unemployment rate in JUNE 2010 at 8.4 %.

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=94623

At that point he reported unemployment was 8.4 %!!! So now you want us to believe it increased in July and August by 1.2 % and then dropped by magic? Funny funny funny.

The truth you don't want people to discuss is as follows:

GDP growth continues to be negative, and is predicted to be negative next year as well - this in spite of increasing oil prices. There are now continuous protests in numerous cities by groups of government workers who are not getting paid, or are paid only part of what they are owed. Street demonstrations protesting government malfeasance, corruption, poor performance, and other misdeeds are endemic, and the country is gradually becoming more ingovernable.

Recent election results show the MAJORITY of the people are opposed to the government. And the most recent polls show a huge rejection of the chaotic and arbitrary government moves, as well as condemnation of the crime wave, the corruption at all levels, and the lack of attention to the problems faced by the common citizen, from the lack of electricity to the increasingly troublesome lack of public transportation due to the poor maintenance of the Caracas metro. Today, Chavez won't speak to Lula anymore, because Lula became so exasperated with Chavez he has called him "The Reizinho", the Little King. Chavez heard about it, and now he's mad at Lula. And behind Lula, he has no friends that count. The Chinese want to suck his oil, the Russians want to use him as a pawn in a chess game with the US empire, and everybody else is just sitting there waiting to see when Venezuela keels over. Even Castro has seen the light, and today he moves Cuba towards capitalism, after realizing that Venezuela's gifts are ephemeral, as the country goes into a huge economic tailspin.

[Judi Lynn]

2. It's simply wrong and a waste of your time to come to this forum and start attacking people.

It's not that kind of place.

If you have something to say, don't make wild accusations about others. That's a personal attack. It's unaccepted, and you should have noted that when you read the rules.

Peace Patriot ECOURAGES people in discussing information. She has gone far out of her way to encourage it, and has always treated people with respect, even when they make asses of themselves and throw fits. That's always an indication they don't have the information they need to make their points stick.

If you're angry because you don't have the information to repudiate material posted here, go get the material, and the link, and post it.

As for speaking to Lula, Chavez and Lula speak together in person every month, and have been doing that for a long time.

Don't try to fool people here who know better. Many of us have been following Latin American events for a long time, and some of us have personal involvement in Latin America going back years, and currently.

Do NOT attack DU'ers. Stick to the subject matter.

[Zorro]

4. What attack?

The only "attack" I see is the yours, as you scold and chastise the poster.

The poster has same opportunity as you to express opinions and observations in LatAm threads.

I suggest you should practice what you preach. Stick to the subject matter.

[Billy Burnett]

5. Hey, foxy. Nice try. Fail.

socia critica --> "The truth you don't want people to discuss is as follows:"

RW attacks seem to be invisible to you.

[subsuelo]

7. invisible, or, embraced. n/t

[Zorro]

10. That's an "attack"?

Does yellow make you sad?

[social_critic]

8. The government official is reporting baloney

The Venezuelan government official reported the unemployment rate was EXACTLY THE SAME as it is today three months ago. So we are to believe this Venezuelan government official when he claims it dropped 1.2 %??? This is a powder puff piece of Venezuelan government propaganda. They are desperately trying to put out misinformation to cover up the truth: their management of the economy is causing hyperinflation and a negative GDP growth rate. And when inflation hits, who gets hit? The poor do.

Chavez and Lula no longer speak, according to Noticias 24:

"Lula habría conversado además con otros colegas presidentes los que informaron a sus ministros y por allí se fugó una confidencia muy dura contra las “palhaçadas” e “improvisações” del “reizinho” venezolano…"

Brazilian companies are doing a lot of construction business in Venezuela, so of course this was kept quiet. It will be up to Dilma to deal with Chavez, but I doubt we'll see Brazilians investing much in Venezuela. And PDVSA was already kept out of its participation in the Pernambuco refinery, which supposedly was going to use Venezuelan crude. Now it's scheduled to use other crudes.

[Peace Patriot]

6. "The truth" that I "don't want people to discuss"? You can get that "truth" from Faux News

or the New York Slimes or any number of corpo-fascist 'news' outlets and discuss it to your heart's content. I don't mind. But it's so incredibly one-sided that I post OTHER information for the sake of discussion among people who really want to be informed and to hear all views.

[Judi Lynn]

3. I just saw a report for September saying the U.S. rate was 9.6!

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION – SEPTEMBER 2010
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

It hasn't been easy for almost all countries, has it?

How beautiful Venezuela led the way AWAY from the World Bank and the I.M.F., and was followed by big ones like Argentina, etc., when everyone knows Latin America was where those two organizations really used to clean up. Just ask the people in Cochabamba how THEY liked their service to Bolivian citizens. Jesus H. Christ.

Thank you for the good news.

http://media.jesusoftheweek.com.nyud.net:8090/1328497.0.gif http://media.jesusoftheweek.com.nyud.net:8090/1328495.0.gif http://media.jesusoftheweek.com.nyud.net:8090/1328490.0.gif

[social_critic]

9. This is the latin american forum

I wuold go post US unemployment figures elsewhere. As far as Latin America is concerned, excluding Haiti, the well known basket case, Venezuela has the highest inflation and the most negative economic performance in the hemisphere. For those who understand the way things are in Venezuela, the unemployment figures issued by the government are fairly irrelevant. There is a huge amount of "informal employment", people who work as maids, peddlers, and similar informal jobs. They are making less than the minimum wage, and they are struggling to get by from day to day. This is one reason why the crime rate is skyrocketing - there's no honest work to be had. And on top of that, many government employees, which are a growing portion of the population, are not being paid their legal wages.

You see, there's something really wrong in Venezuela, the guys running the economy don't know what they are doing, and everything is falling apart. This is reality, the tangible reality many deny because it shatters their dream of the glorious bolivarian revolution. And this is the reason why so many are now bailing out.

Here's what a former Chavez supporter, the Governor of Falcon state, had to say about Chavez' conduct:

"the party is infiltrated by “bureaucracy, an absence of discussion, clientelism, factionalism and a badly understood concept of loyalty.”

I could add a lot more. Do remember, although it is understood this forum is read mostly by Americans, I think they will be smart enough to understand the use of American statistics to discuss what happens in Latin America is somewhat irrelevant. We could call it the MacDonaldlizing of political debate.

[Judi Lynn]

11. I would call it posting a remark in a forum where I've been since almost the moment it opened. n/t

[social_critic]

14. It's a common format failure

Americans have a tendnecy to measure everything against what they know. Thus you post US data when debating Latin American events and politics. But the two are fairly disconnected. For example, in this case the Venezuelan government made a claim about unemployment dropping 1.2 % in one month. But the claim is patently false, because two months before the unemployment rate had been reported by the same official to be exactly the same. Thus my point is that it is extremely unlikely for the unemployment rate to go up 1.2 % and then drop back again in such a short period of time. This of course is a subject you dare not discuss - why not engage in the subject itself? Is it possible for unemployment to go up and down so fast? Instead, you serve up data about US unemployment. But that to me isn't really relevant - it's just fluff being thrown up to distract the discussion away from the key issue. As for the other poster, who cares how many times I have posted here? The question is, does what I post make sense or not? Does it improve the level of discussion? Or do you prefer to have an echo chamber which involves endless cheering for extreme left governments in Latin Amwrica?

I dont think it is good for ANY form of government to have absolutely no criticism or feedback. This is clearly the great failure of communists and fascists, both extremes, lacking the ability for the leadership to connect to reality, fail due to the lack of this feedback loop. By working tirelessly to throw up propaganda, and obscure the reality that things are not well, all you do is create the certainty of failure for these governments, which start out with good intentions and then degenerate in the sam-o sam-o outcomes of personality worship, evolution of a repressive security machine, elimination of freedom of expression, and all the other ailments we have seen over and over. So why not try to change, and tweak what you do to achieve something positive? There's nothing wrong with socialism, if it is pragmatic and it recognizes its failures. On the other hand, dogmatic followers of failed leaders doom their cause from the beginning. The Venezuelan official who lies about unemployment and does it so brazenly is just another actor in the drama unfolding in Venezuela, in which a socialist government is repeating the mistakes of the past, and headed towards a cliff. And if you continue to applaud as it heads for the cliff, then you are just as guilty as the coup leaders of 2002, Otto Reich, and their ilk.

[Peace Patriot]

12. You with 80 posts are dictating what this forum is about, what we can say here,

what comparisons we can make? That is not only arrogant, it is stupid-making. The U.S. government and the corpo-fascist press are constantly ragging on the Chavez government and we're not allowed to make comparisons between, oh, Venezuela's TRANSPARENT elections and U.S. TOTALLY NON-TRANSPARENT elections, or Venezuelan vs U.S. unemployment figures?

These comparisons are quite apt, not only because of the constant dissing of the Chavez government by the likes of you and the U.S. State Department and New York Slimes, and the Associated Pukes, and Faux News and all the rest, but also because the Chavez government and the people of Venezuela have been proposing and implementing an ALTERNATIVE to the predatory U.S. capitalist model that has gotten us and the world into so much trouble. In Venezuela, the government is pouring money from oil profits into education, health care and other bootstrapping of the poor, while in the U.S., due to massive looting by the Bush Junta, war profiteers, banksters and the super-rich, we are firing thousands of teachers, millions are without health care and millions are falling into the kind of dire poverty that the Chavez government has successfully lifted people out of (cutting poverty in half and extreme poverty by over 70%). No government is perfect, but which government has its priorities straight? Which government is trying to serve the interests of its people? And why shouldn't we consider alternative models? And who are you to say that we can't consider alternatives and can't make comparisons, here, in the Democratic Underground, a forum for progressive U.S. Democratic Party members? Who are you to say that this forum cannot reference facts about the U.S. in discussing Latin America? That is ridiculous.

As for the informal employment sector in Venezuela, I want to know where you stood on the 69 constitutional amendments proposal OF THE CHAVEZ GOVERNMENT, in 2007, which included a provision for pensions for the informal sector workers? Are you Venezuelan? Did you vote FOR it? If you are not Venezuelan, did you support it? That amendments package, which the Chavez government PUT TO A VOTE OF THE PEOPLE, lost by a hair, probably because it included equal rights for women and gays--YET ANOTHER progressive Chavez proposal. Was your vote part of the "hair" that DENIED pensions to the informal sector? Was you vote part of the "hair" that DENIED equal rights for women and gays? And if you are not Venezuelan, what have YOU done to promote pensions and decent wages for informal sector workers, or to STOP discrimination against women and gays? You are like the rightwing nutballs here in the U.S. who obstruct, and obstruct, and obstruct, then turn right around and BLAME progressives when they can't accomplish something? It is simply mind-boggling for you to blame Chavez for unfairness to informal sector workers. You think the rightwing in Venezuela would help informal sector workers?! That's like trusting John Boehner to help the U.S. unemployed!

And, yes, that comparison is also apt. And, yes, I'm making the comparison despite your dictate that North and South America are different planets never to be compared. You would like to see a government of John Boehners in Venezuela! A government of Sarah Palins! A government of Koch Industries 'tea partiers'! Your views are as screwed up, untrustworthy, twisted, and "Alice in Wonderlandishly" inside out, upside down and backwards as theirs are, and as Venezuela's rightwingers are. And that is another way in which Venezuela and the U.S. are comparable. The Venezuelan rightwing seems to have provided the template for fascist nutballs in politics HERE--not surprising since they were "trained" by the CIA!

[maddezmom]

13. PA