Maduro win Venezuelan Election: What's Happening Meow

Breaking news! Nicolas Maduro wins the Venezuelan election.

Hi Everyone, for those of you who follow the political news out of Venezuela, surely it comes as no surprise that Maduro won the national election. He received about 2/3 of the total ballots cast, easily winning a second, six-year term. The turnout was below 50% so less than a third of the voting population actually supported him, however, this is how democracy works. The real question is: Who actually thinks Venezuela is a democracy?

source

First of all, the mainstream opposition claimed that the vote was rigged and boycotted the vote. Second, the opposition claims that the figures were overstated and only about one-third of eligible voters cast a ballot. Third, Maduro was hand-picked by the former president Hugo Chavez and together their policies have destroyed the Venezuelan economy. In my humble opinion, Venezuela is more a socialist dictatorship than a liberal(Western) democracy.

Without going into details of who Hugo Chavez was, who Maduro is, or the history of Venezuela, I am just going to continue this post with a rant about why social dictatorships are bad. In 2006, when Hugo Chavez was elected for his second term, I had the opportunity to meet quite a few Venezuelan's and asked them if they supported Chavez-their answers were a resounding 'No'. This is anecdotal evidence and the people I met were rich enough to travel to The West and probably had circles of wealthy friends back home. The point is the Venezuelans who were able to travel or study abroad probably had a better picture of the world that those who could not and the worldly Venezuelans did not support the politics of Chavez.

Hugo Chavez and Maduro by extension have destroyed Venezuela. It went from an oil-rich, almost developed nation with an aspiring and growing middle class to a hyperinflation-ridden country on the brink of starvation. There is little to blame for this mess asides from the failures of another social dictatorship. I don't think anyone who comes across this post can say anything defending Venezuela's politics if you can please let us know why I'm intrigued.

Socialism only works when the other classes are respected, most countries are socialist to a degree and some dictatorships even do fairly well. We have many European countries which are very socialist and they are quite wealthy, having healthy economies, Canada is doing fine and so is China. China is very similar to Venezuela in that it is arguably a dictatorship and its economy is roaring, so what went wrong with Venezuela? Well, Venezuela gave too much to the poor at the expense of the capitalists. For an economy to succeed, you need capitalists to efficiently allocate capital. Nationalising the oil industry and other critical industries scared off foreign investment and worried the wealthy Venezuelan's to the point where they would not invest in their country and transferred as much wealth as possible overseas. This will happen in any country which nationalizes, Nationalizing is bad for economics, especially if it includes seizing assets and not repaying the previous owners back. Just ask Cuba how they are doing.

Thank you for reading my post. Do you agree with my opinion, or do you think Venezuela's economic situation is a result of something else, like US sanctions? I would like to hear your opinions on socialism, dictatorships, democracy and Venezuela in general so please comment and feel free to argue as I support an open conversation. If you are Venezuelan, I would really appreciate your opinion on the situation there.

If you scratch my back I'll scratch yours. Please UPVOTE, COMMENT and FOLLOW. I'll follow you in return and UPVOTE any quality content of yours I come across.

Bye for meow 😺 mRrrrrrrr....