this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2025
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The country went to shit before Chavez died as a result of many backing away from trade as a result of US demands as well as a slew of bad policy choices that turned them from a food exporting nation to one that imported food which collapsed the economy. Chavez and Maduro instituted price controls which have harmed the agricultural economy significantly which further harmed things.
That being said while their results were bad their intentions were good which is not going to be true of whatever puppet government the USA would install.
The results are usually bad when you don’t kowtow to the imperial core, but they’re also likely to be even worse for the majority of people if you do. That’s why monopoly capitalism has to be fought, if we ever want better outcomes to even be possible.
The fact is price controls are terrible policy and have never worked because we cannot predict the future needs of the market. Unless we magically get vastly better AI that runs the entire economy it is unlikely price controls will ever work so when Chavez instituted them it lead to a collapse of the agriculture sector leading to hunger issues.
Some of the economic problems were self created because many leftists have zero formal economic backgrounds and thus have trouble separating reasons for factual historical failures of specific leftist policies, like price controls or rent control being extremely problematic historically speaking, vs what is merely capitalist propaganda eg "capitalism is the only system that works" which isn't true historically speaking.
That may well be, but at the same time, most economists in the world have a garbage education in neoclassical economics and carry neoliberal brain worms.
The system was created and developed by rich folks to ensure that rich folks continued to accumulate more and more wealth. Economists seem to me to be just working backwards from that point without ever mentioning it.
We had a middle class when taxes on the wealthy were 50-90 percent. Unless we bring that back, the ‘economy’ is bullshit.
Referring to the USA of course.
But Venezuela’s economy collapse was caused mainly by US foreign policy. It may have been exacerbated by Maduro’s or Chavez’s policy, but the US was the cause.
If you were white and male it was a good deal for one generation. That was an anomalous moment in world history that will never come again. The US was the only major power in the world that didn’t have its productive capacity blown to smithereens in WWII, unions were comparatively strong, and the USSR posed a serious ideological threat to capitalism which caused the bourgeoisie to give (temporary) concessions.
Yes, of course there was systemic racism and women couldn’t even have personal checking accounts without approval from a male….
I’m just saying that unless taxes go up to 90% on folks making over a couple million dollars a year then we’ll never get there again.
Yes. I’m not disagreeing with you; I’m just highlighting what a unique moment it was, because most people think that was “normal,” and that we can get back to it, but we never can.
I wouldn’t want to “go back” to it. But we do know that the 90% tax on the wealthy is a viable plan to fund the social services and needs of the people. And we also know that it needs to happen.
Edit: I hope it’s clear I was not advocating for something or anything like a return to 1950’s values lol
It isn't really viable within the confines of a dying capitalist empire, though.
What do you think your reply means?
Do you think Conoco-Phillips was involved with Venezuela's collapse?
I have nothing to directly point my finger at but I wouldn'tbe surprised if most major US energy companies played a role to some degree.