ADSactly World - Venezuela's State Of Affaris
Venezuela and its toxic relationship with totalitarianism
Many of us have experienced toxic relationships, those in which no matter how hard we try again and again, no matter how much we are in love with that person, it will end up getting worse.
Something very similar happens to Venezuela, it has kind of a loving relationship with an ideology that for close to 20 years has been causing a lot of sadness, and especially a great frustration due to an endless number of unfulfilled promises. The bad thing is that, like many people involved in a toxic relationship, it always promises to improve and change if necessary. But, just as no person changes for another one in any relationship, no ideology changes its bases or principles for anything in the world, because it would simply cease to exist and become something else.
The current system that rules the country came as an ideology that promised abundance and only brought misery. It made the people believe that the one who has (or had) more when it comes to material things was a soulless and evil person, that the rich were guilty of any misery there might be and promised to perform the task of returning what had supposedly been taken away from them by the previous elites.
But these people not only deceive the country on purpose, they don’t tolerate or allow the citizens to have a good quality of life, or to aspire to own property, to travel around the world, but above all they don’t allow the country to be a place where freedom is respected, up the point where millions of Venezuelans are separated from their family and friends, who left the country looking for a better future.
Perhaps the high oil prices from the 2000s, the expropriations and the collection of taxes served for a long time to mask what was really happening. For years they captivated millions of Venezuelans with free homes, free washing machines, free laptops, making them believe that all of this was a “right” for them, and therefore this could be permanent dynamic, even though Venezuela was and still is full or murders, hunger and general resentment. They were able to eliminate basic freedoms and made sure the majority of the citizens became compliant submissives, always waiting for the new handout from the government.
A recent example can be seen in the gas prices, they are forcing people to register in what they call “country card” (carnet de la patria in spanish) which is basically another mechanism to control people and to control their actions. I say they are forcing the people because now if someone wants to buy gas for their cars, they would have to pay international prices unless they register in the country card system which is the only method to have access to cheap local prices. It is obvious that international gas prices cannot be paid by regular Venezuelans because the salaries are extremely low.
But like any toxic relationship, Venezuela not only gave it a second, but perhaps a third, fourth and even fifth chance to this ideology in order to see if it could really make the country become prosperous. As it is clear now, the result was none other than shortages, massive migration and insecurity.
People behind this type of governments don’t care about anything but their ideology
People that support this ideology and take political actions are not normal citizens like any other person. A Venezuelan “revolutionary” that supports this ideology is not really a Venezuelan citizen, as any other normal individual. This individual is actually someone whose priority is to be an agent of his ideology, he owes no loyalty to his country nor to his friends or family. When a person like this, achieves power in any country, he doesn’t look to benefit the people or the society in general, he rules for his fellow comrades whether they are from Venezuela or from any other countries around the world. For that reason, they come to a country and do their best to put all the resources of that country at the service of their ideology. They expropriate companies and use them to finance new totalitarians political parties in other countries. They go to other countries with the sole purpose of indoctrinating a group of young people and try to make them into international agents of their ideology.
They are not interested in the sovereignty of the country, nor do they seek independence from foreign influences, which is something they constantly claim. All they want is for the foreign influences to be the “right” ones, that is, the ones behind the ideology they are supporting.
To explain it in the simplest possible way, the way in which they operate is like a parasite. They manage to take control of a country, take all of its resources, reduce the people’s freedom and move to the next one. Meanwhile the parasites, those in the government, have lives full of excesses with the money they steal.
It is possible to establish a free society in Venezuela? If so, how should this transition start?
Well, the process of turning Venezuela into a country that respects freedom cannot happen in a matter of days, forcing changes in a radical way and without thinking about potential consequences according to the country’s current context could make everything worse. It is difficult to expect from an ordinary Venezuelan who is suffering from poverty and prisoner of the government's dependence for as long as he can remember, to wake up one day supporting the total economic, social and philosophical freedom posed by a different system, this is a change of mentality that doesn’t happen easily. However, it is useless to insult or denigrate someone for thinking in a way that we consider wrong. Nothing better than creating an environment of trust and empathy to explain that concept of freedom that everyone thinks they know but in reality, very few understand and practice.
For something like a big change to take place, small transformations need to happen little by little, it is not only about political changes, it is necessary to understand the importance of changing the current values as well as the idiosyncrasy that has been adopted in this society, in such a way that with time the changes that might be about to happen can remain sustainable. It is about each individual developing the ability to reason for himself, exercise leadership and accept the responsibilities of his own life, in order to understand the benefits of freedom from a philosophical point of view, which is much more complex than freedom only from the economic sense.
Final thoughts
Venezuela is not only a victim of a massive criminal organization that is in control of the government, and therefore, of the country itself, but also it is a victim of its own mentality. For decades the people have been supporting the growth in government power, putting complete trust in this institution and not paying attention to all the bad things that always happen when a government gets out of control.
Getting rid of the totalitarians will certainly be something very difficult, and international help might be needed at some point, but the most important thing is for the people to recognize their mistakes regarding their understanding about how societies can achieve prosperity, it is always about freedom, but somehow, there are some places where individuals seem to always prefer increase the control rather than increase the freedom.
Images sources
Socialism places so much power into the hands of the government in the form of regulatory power that it attracts psychopaths and fascists. If you were a sociopath on the road to power, would you not see the opportunity to take control of a country's economy as enticing? Even if you successfully created your ideal socialist utopia, after you die, the next leader is Stalin. Inevitably, the most efficient and ruthless will rise to the top under socialism, because it is a government philosophy that requires such a high degree of control over the affairs of business and the daily lives of individuals. "Socialism doesn't work" because it creates the perfect environment for sociopaths to thrive: An environment without checks and balances and restrictions over what the government can and cannot do.
Perfectly said!
Perfectly said!
Unfortunately people tend to fall for these kind of promises. Would you vote for someone who says the truth? Who says taugh times are ahead if he gets elected? No one should expect them to fulfill their promises, instead we alone should take our future to our own hands. We all know these people care less about us. They always put them self first, then their families, friends even their animals get ahead of us and perhaps than they spend few minutes for people who voted for them. The rest is just a waste of time for them.
🤔 ... isn’t it actually good for Venezuela’s citizens to be able to pay less? I know it’s just another way for government to control their people, but at least it eases the pain a bit.
That’s true! It may get even worse before it starts getting better. These “parasites”will fight to their death to protect what they have and nothing stops them from getting what they want until someone or something stops them.
Very good post @adsactly, your words are very useful to all of us and can be a very good motivation to live this life. Speaking of politics, I think, many people in this world do not understand well about politics in a country. Like the people who live in the village, in general most of them do not know about politics with good, so that they are very much in deceit by the state officials, so the life of people in the village is very difficult and do not have a good job.
As in my country of residence, very many state officials are corrupt the money of the poor, and orphans, maybe you better understand about all this. And the public can not protest for all this because there is no evidence, and they do not know the law well. I think, if within a country there is no one who is corrupt, surely people in that country will be prosperous, especially for the poor and orphans. But none of this will happen, because it is very difficult to find a leader who is truly honest and cares about all the suffering of his people in this day and age. Thanks for sharing @adsactly...
Yes, that is very common, when people aren't informed enough, or with enough knowledge to see through the lies of the politicians, it is just a matter of time for them to get deceived.
There is always evidence, in the case of Venezuela there are tons of evidence about the extreme corruption and that's why these people are having a lot of problems with the international community. The only reason they aren't in jail is because they have the country kidnapped and control the army, but this should eventually end as other countries like Colombia get overwhelmed by the amount of Venezuelas looking for help across the borders.
Thank you so much sir for your support..
This is my contribution@adsactly Venezuela's oil incomes represent around 95% of its fare profit. This implies when oil costs were high, a considerable measure of cash was streaming into the coffers of the Venezuelan government.
At the point when communist President Hugo Chávez was in influence, from February 1999 until his demise in March 2013, he utilized a portion of that cash to back liberal social projects to lessen imbalance and destitution.
Two million homes have been made through a communist government program called Misión Vivienda (Housing Mission), as indicated by official figures.
In any case, when oil costs dropped pointedly in 2014, the legislature was all of a sudden looked with a vast gap in its funds and needed to decrease a portion of its most well known projects.
Is its overreliance on oil Venezuela's solitary issue?
No, a large number of the approaches presented by Hugo Chávez additionally reverse discharges. To make essential products more reasonable to poor people, his organization presented value controls - topping the cash individuals pay for such staples as flour, cooking oil and toiletries.
That's it..
No, even with the "low" prices that started in September of 2014 if I remember correctly, there should still be enough money in savings to cover for times with these "low" prices. There were a lot of years with oil at 100$ and even higher. And the national budget was also based on the theoretical price of 60$, leaving an extra 40$ from those years with +100$ as the price.
There is indeed a US windfall phenomenon to regain control of Venezuela but the conditions for that to happen are there
Venezuela is too dependent on oil exports, a barrel at 50USD is not enough for the needs of Venezuela.
Venezuela depends too much on the US economically who are its first customer and its first supplier. Especially are first customer in the oil.
Hugo Chávez certainly did a lot for the people but forgot that to last it was also necessary to develop the economy, to make Venezuela less dependent on the outside world.
He did not do it for ideological questions by not putting in place laws favorable to entrepreneurship (personally I only know capitalist entrepreneurs)
The only hope is that finally the barrel goes up but even that will not solve the problem because the US now import much less oil from the Gulf or Venzuela because of the arrival of shale gas on the shelves. The US is practically self-sufficient and ironic is when the price of oil is low that shale gas becomes less profitable. If oil went up the US would mechanically reduce the import of oil to buy instead its domestic production.
Conclusion: Bad revolutionary planning. For now it does not work.
Nice write-up
Bravo
This is a post that touches me deep in my feelings, I am Venezuelan and the way in which this crisis is brewing is not anything that we have seen before in the history not only of Venezuela but globally it is one of the WORST CRISES economic, social and political.
There are literally people struggling for a plate of food, people who despite having talent and training are forced to abandon everything to cross the fronetera and work sweeping houses or washing dishes, people even with doctorates not knowing what to do because their salaries are not they cover even a basic food!
Steemit is a good reflection of what some Venezuelans are trying to achieve, looking for money to simply live a better life based on cryptocurrency because the national currency is used to pay for transportation that does not even cost the dollar cent (the current bus ticket is about 4000bsf about 0.00001 $)
Because of the alarming situation and the size of my house, I have been growing food for a few years now, helping those who need some food and all the children who come to my door asking for even a fruit
Blessings
Yes, it is the worst in the history of Venezuela, but in the history of the world there are certainly worse ones.
That has been getting very common in the last months/years. In my street a lot of neighbors are also growing vegetables and exchanging them or selling them with people they know. It is amazing you are able to provide free food for people in need!
That's a current to provide in this platform and I say that with your concept @adsactly huge numbers of the approaches presented by Hugo Chávez likewise exploded backward. Keeping in mind the end goal to make essential merchandise more reasonable to poor people, his organization presented value controls - topping the cash individuals pay for such staples as flour, cooking oil and toiletries.
Venezuela's Central Bank has not distributed swelling figures since 2015 but rather financial analyst Steve Hanke from Johns Hopkins University ascertained it rose to very nearly 18,000% in April.
Hyperinflation has been driven up by the administration's ability to print additional cash and its preparation to routinely expand the lowest pay permitted by law with an end goal to recapture a portion of its prevalence with Venezuela's poor.
The administration is additionally progressively attempting to get credit after it defaulted on a portion of its administration bonds. With loan bosses less inclined to go out on a limb of putting resources into Venezuela, the legislature has again taken to printing more cash, additionally undermining its esteem and stirring swelling.
Socialism in Venezuela works fine. However, the US has a bad habit of overthrowing democratically elected governments of isolated nations it doesn’t agree with. Especially small countries coming out of decades of colonialism. So much for the spreading of democracy. It starts by the use of "Sanctions" to deprive them of toilet paper and tooth paste which causes social unrest for example. Socialism of Hugo Chavez worked great and many people still support it. The US works to undermine it because Venezuela is sitting on the largest oil reserves in the world (corporations are sad that the money goes to the people). That is why they are pushing for regime change (here we go again). All of central America has been ravaged by Western European colonialism that robs them of their resources and destroyed their autonomy because the colonizing powers had no intention of building up infrastructure for an independent nation. Unfortunately they rely too heavily on the import/export economy and heavily subsidize their economy on oil. So when oil prices get hit, so does their economy. The US encouraged Saudi Arabia to increase oil production (and others) to affect the prices in Venezuela. The US funds opposition parties to destabilize their governments (as well as many others throughout the world, (think Iran/Contra).
Man this is so wrong in so many ways!! im from venezuela and im telling you that socialism is one of the WORST THINGS i ever see, its just destrution of all the economy, USA does not have any repercutions here IS JUST SO MUCH BAD GOVERMENT
I invite you to come to Venezuela, but of course, words and actions are never the same.
Wrong, Venezuela with oil prices as low as 10$ and even lower had a much better situation than the current one that has oil prices higher than 40$.
Besides, the national budget was always calculated based on the oil at 60$ (which was a mistake because prices like that are unsustainable), so the extra 40$ from when the oil was at 100$ should be saved somewhere. But of course, most people don't know this, and some even decide to ignore information like this to defend something that cannot be defended.
If you are so in favor of this system, then come visit it. This ideology never works, it never did, and it never will. Only freedom breeds prosperity, not government totalitarian control over people.
I don't think that you would ever acknowledge the millions of deaths that socialism and it's relative communism are guilty of but there is that. Also, there are people dying of hunger, literally. There has never been famines in any democracy, ever. I would recommend reading Amartya Sen. The fact that the USA has indeed sponsored the fall of regimes even in South America as you did not point out interestingly enough, does not negate under ANY circumstance the crimes of said regimes. You might want to google what was Hugo Chavez's net worth at his time of death (about $1 Billion USD). See.. the thing is socialism is great business for government and it portrays itself as benign for it's "giving" ethos but it is totally detrimental to countries and I would go as far as saying reprehensible.
The worst disgrace that could have happened to my country Venezuela is that we were the largest oil reserve in the world. We retired from the fields and became ultra dependent on the oil rent, we have to buy from other countries what they produce with our raw materials. With the accumulation of wealth that this country has had to be a first world country, but thanks to our corrupt politicians throughout the 20th century we are a third world country more.
Yeah, that unhealthy trend started even before Chavez when the oil was nationalized.