[p2p-research] chavez continues to destroy Venezuela: Poverty in Venezuela fell from 70% in 1996 to 23% in 2009

[Ryan Lanham]

>From my perspective, things look mostly bad...and getting far worse.  The
economy of Venezuela is shrinking at the fastest rate in the New World, for
instance.  There is no history (ever) of such shrinkage leading to positive
outcomes, so if Chavez is not thinking about GDP, I pity his countrymen.
 Production of nearly everything but oil and gas is completely collapsing.
 Oil and gas are merely falling.  Inflation is 30% there.  Corruption (read
any article on the Boligarchs) is very high.

Has the government given large sums to the poor?  Yes.  If poverty reduction
= redistribution (some would call it vote buying), Chavez is a genius.
 Unfortunately, years and years of experience show such redistributions are,
at best, a one time shot and need to be done with careful incentives for
sound investments in health, education and social mobility if they are to
work.  At worst, they are society destroying when the rich and valuable
merely leave--which has happened dramatically in V.  It is hard to piss away
oil wealth of the level his nation has, but he's doing a marvelous job of
trying, it seems.  Some would say giving it to the poor is better than
building skyscrapers in Dubai.  As I have said, any bad machine is a bad
machine...

Oliver Stone is making a movie about Chavez that turns him into a hero.  The
debate will be well-joined by lots of informed folks this year.  I look
forward to it.  If he's doing anything worthwhile, centrist reviewers with
minimal stakes in ideology will sort it out.

R.

On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 11:21 PM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Poverty in Venezuela fell from 70% in 1996 to 23% in 2009 ( 2) [image:
> Printer friendly page] Print This
> <http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_58770.shtml> ShareThis
> By Special Report with Editorial Comment by Arturo Rosales
> Venezuelan National Statistics Office
> Friday, Mar 5, 2010
>
> http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_58770.shtml
>
>  *Editorial comment by Arturo Rosales*: The basic information outlined
> below is what readers abroad will rarely see in the corporate media. From
> the BBC to CNN, FOX and the floundering big city newspapers. If such media
> ever did publish this information it would be an admission that Chávez’
> economic policies are working for the vast majority of the almost now 29
> million Venezuelans. The corporate media will concentrate on GDP declines or
> growth(see second article below) as being the yardstick by which to measure
> “economic success”. President Chávez, however, says that GDP figures do not
> interest him. He is interested in the decline in poverty, unemployment and
> inequality and these are the measures which the Bolivarian Government
> strives to improve and are seen from 1996 through 2009.
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-- 
Ryan Lanham
rlanham1963 at gmail.com
Facebook: Ryan_Lanham
P.O. Box 633
Grand Cayman, KY1-1303
Cayman Islands
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