Chavez Calls On Us To Follow Path Of Socialism

[August]

Originally Posted by Max2147

Petro-socialism is a fundementally sound idea. It works quite well for the Persian Gulf states. Give all your citizens cushy high-paying jobs that are funded with oil revenues and give all the backbreaking labor to foreign laborers from Bangladesh who are willing to work for pennies. It's brilliant.

Unfortunately, in there's a big problem in Venezuela - the ego of Hugo Chavez. That stands in the way of anything resembling progress and cuts off the foreign investment that is badly needed to keep Venezuela's oil industry up to date. As a result, all he's done is forment class warfare and change the laws to keep him in power.

The sad thing is that there's nothing better in Venezuela. The opposition's policy is to basically hand the country over to the businessmen and keep the lower classes down. There's no sensible moderates who care about more than just the rich but aren't going to run the country into the ground. Venezuela needs somebody like Lula, who for all his faults has kept the Brazilian economy running strong despite his socialist agenda.

This is a pretty good summation in my opinion.