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Reply #3: They could afford to shrink, after such spectacular sustained growth, [View All]

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Peace Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-29-11 05:25 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. They could afford to shrink, after such spectacular sustained growth,
and they went positive on growth in early 2010--basically had only a year of stagnant growth (late 2008 to early 2010)--and have grown ever since. Remember, they were FIRST out of the starting block on reducing poverty, putting money in peoples hands and spreading the wealth, and this year Venezuela was designated "THE most equal country in Latin America" on income distribution, by the UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean. Also, Venezuelans recently rated their own country one of the highest in the world on their own well-being and future prospects, which tells us that any stagnant growth or shrinkage in 2009 has not hurt ordinary people. Their main problem in 2009, just after the Bushwhack-induced crash, was the plunge in oil prices to $40/barrel. Because of that, they had to be cautious on budgeting, but they never cut social programs, and that is why and how they are recovering despite all that loss of revenue and why and how Venezuelans feel so well off today. They were cushioned from the crash.

You are so anti-Chavez that I don't trust any stats that you dig up or your interpretation of them. But even if it's true that they suffered loss of growth (rather than simply zero growth) in the year after the Bushwhacks crashed the world economy, the factors that I cited cushioned that slowdown and made recovery from it possible. The Crash of '08 was entirely due to deregulation and criminal malfeasance by the Bush Junta. It was no fault of Venezuela's and Venezuela was better prepared than most of the world because of its prior and continued social spending. And as soon as oil prices starting going back up, Venezuela's economy started to grow again. It has no drag on it, like we do, of endemic and raging unemployment and a squeeze on the poor and middle class like we have never seen, coming from both the government and the corporate rulers. Growth means NOTHING if it is "jobless growth"--the rich getting richer but NOT creating jobs, the poor and middle class falling off the cliff and the society heading to ruin.

In any case, comparison to the U.S. is "apples and oranges." The starting conditions are so different and the economies are so different that it is very difficult to compare them. But they do have this in common: putting money in ordinary peoples' hands is a MUST when the rich hoard their money after looting everything in sight. That principle applies to all mixed capitalist/socialist economies (--and the U.S. is also mixed, although with a different formula), basically the entire western world. This is what the Chavez government did after the hoarding/looting by the rich in 1990s--put money into the hands of ordinary people--and that is why the spectacular growth occurred and why Venezuela landed on its feet, in this Bushwhack catastrophe, despite the crash in oil prices. Slow or stagnant growth with high employment--and also resources poured into education and business startups--is a very different thing than slow or stagnant growth, or even some growth, with high UN-employment, getting worse by the day, small businesses going under, manufacturing and jobs pouring out of the country with dreadful outsourcing and even government employment being drastically reduced (the most insane thing of all). Venezuela's economy is on the uptick. The U.S. economy is on a steep slide and no one knows where it will end, and the government is doing NOTHING to prevent it.

Medical costs continue to go through the roof. Tuition even at public universities goes up every few months, it seems. Transportation to work or school or other trips costs twice what it did only a few years ago, with no rise in wages, and ever increasing unemployment, to catastrophic levels in some areas. People are being squeezed in every way imaginable--from having to spend $600-800 per year per child just for public school elementary and high school attendance, all in new fees imposed because the rich are not paying their fair share of taxes--to credit card usury and high food prices and doubling and tripling of the costs of any government transaction. Peoples' savings are utterly drained; they cannot pay their bills and are living on credit, if they have it. And on and on and on. And still the government does nothing--except when it is further catering to the rich. This is a catastrophe in the making that Venezuelans will not suffer because they have a government that is looking out for their interests allied with OTHER governments that are looking out for their peoples' interests, strongly allied with Venezuela in a pact to create prosperity for all in an independent region where political leaders are actually responsive to the people, unlike ours.

You don't want to give Chavez any credit because that's your kneejerk position. To an objective observer--and I have no stake in Venezuela--Chavez and his government have been the pioneers of this new prosperity and unity in South America, and have done extremely well, under enormous pressure from the U.S. and its rightwing allies within Venezuela, as to economic growth and equitable wealth distribution. Their staring down of Exxon Mobil and getting a much better deal for Venezuela on the oil contracts is worth ten years of Chavez government all by itself--but they have done so much more. They have not only changed Venezuela from a very unfair to a much fairer society, they have re-introduced the concept of "government of, by and for the people" to the western hemisphere. That is why they are so hated by the oligarchs and their propagandistic press, here and there. They have changed the paradigm from "get rich while you can" to "take care of your brothers and sisters." And our rich and Venezuela's rich don't want to hear that. They want government "of, by and for" themselves and to hell with everybody else.

This is a profound change in South America and in the world. Credit to Chavez, to his government and to the Venezuelan people.
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