Venezuela's Water System is Collapsing (nytimes.com) 229
In Venezuela, a crumbling economy and the collapse of even basic state infrastructure means water comes irregularly -- and drinking it is an increasingly risky gamble. Venezuela's current rate of infant mortality from diarrhea, which is closely related to water quality, is six times higher than 15 years ago, according to the World Health Organization. From a report: But the government stopped releasing official public health data years ago. So The New York Times commissioned researchers from the Universidad Central de Venezuela to recreate the water quality study they had conducted regularly for the water utility in Caracas from 1992 until 1999. The scientists found that about a million residents were exposed to contaminated supplies. This puts them at risk of contracting waterborne viruses that could sicken them and threatens the lives of children and the most vulnerable. "This is a potential epidemic," said Jose MarÃa De Viana, who headed Caracas's water utility, Hidrocapital, until 1999. "It's very serious. It's unacceptable."
In the latest study, 40 samples were taken from the capital's main water systems and tested for bacteria and for chlorine, which keeps water safe. The study also tested alternative water sources used by city residents during supply outages. One third of the samples did not meet national norms. This should have required Hidrocapital to issue a sanitation alert, according to the utility's own internal regulations. But Venezuela's government has not issued any alerts at least since President Nicolas Maduro's Socialist Party took power 20 years ago. "The biggest health risk that we see there right now is water -- water and sanitation," the head of the International Federation of the Red Cross, Francesco Rocca, told foreign reporters this week, referring to Venezuela.
In the latest study, 40 samples were taken from the capital's main water systems and tested for bacteria and for chlorine, which keeps water safe. The study also tested alternative water sources used by city residents during supply outages. One third of the samples did not meet national norms. This should have required Hidrocapital to issue a sanitation alert, according to the utility's own internal regulations. But Venezuela's government has not issued any alerts at least since President Nicolas Maduro's Socialist Party took power 20 years ago. "The biggest health risk that we see there right now is water -- water and sanitation," the head of the International Federation of the Red Cross, Francesco Rocca, told foreign reporters this week, referring to Venezuela.
The ultimate result of an extreme left government (Score:3, Insightful)
Brainwashing, oppression, starvation, disease, misery, death.
Though death often happens sooner depending how trigger happy the government is.
All in the name of "the people" which might as well be "god" or "pixies at the bottom of the garden" for all the relationship is has to actual reality.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm not even an american never mind a trump supporter so you can take your cliched trump counter argument and go do one.
What's REALLY hilarious. (Score:2)
That's pretty fucking hilarious considering how Trump's supporters believe any conspiracy theory he retweets, ...
What's REALLY hilarious is that his opponents STILL don't get what the tweets are about.
Yes, they have served to get messages out by going around the total brick-wall of the mainstream media - especially in the early days. But that strategic use is minor compared to their tactical application.
Whenever Trump wants to do something to advance his agenda on one point, he posts some outrageous tweets
Re: (Score:2)
Monopoly Power (Score:5, Insightful)
Interesting that monopoly power is frequently decried, often with the proposed solution of a government takeover.
When the government has enforced monopoly power, where do you go for recourse? When things like this happen, how do you wrest control back from the state monopoly into a competitive system?
With socialism, there is no recourse - short of rebooting the whole government. That will happen in Venezuela eventually, and it will be ugly. Things are going to get a whole lot worse for them before it gets better. Better the rest of the world learn from their mistakes than to make them all over again.
Re: (Score:2)
there is no recourse either when the monopoly is held by a private company holding The People hostage, see california and PG&E
Re: (Score:3)
There's still a recourse: moving. Venezuelans are under the Venezuelan government no matter where they go in their country.
Re: (Score:3)
Do keep in mind that if the State government of CA allowed competition to PG&E, there wouldn't be a monopoly held by a private company....
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Monopoly Power (Score:4, Insightful)
...which is how/why "natural monopolies" come about in the first place.
The solution to the "natural monopoly" farce is simple: the government owns the infrastructure, and competing private companies own the service. That solves every single natural monopoly problem in existence: water, sewer, electricity, land-line phone, Internet, roads (which already loosely operate on this principle), etc.
Letting private industry own the infrastructure is a HUGE failure of government.
Re: (Score:3)
Letting private industry own the infrastructure is a HUGE failure of government.
An alternative solution, which is implemented where I live, is to allow private ownership of the infrastructure, but force them to lease capacity to competitors for a fair price. This works pretty well.
Re: (Score:2)
Happens in the UK at retail level for electricity, gas, and POTS (phones), and works reasonably well.
Water is on the way too.
Rgds
Damon
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. The difference between a state-sanctioned monopoly and a state-owned monopoly is merely semantics.
PG&E has the power to do as they please, and the customers of their services are going to take it whether they like it or not. At least the residents of CA have the option to move to a different state. Venezuela's citizens don't have that luxury.
Re: (Score:3)
moving is a possibility when you have the resources to actually move, and are able to find work to sustain your needs in the new location.
I'm not so sure those currently living in CA can do so either
Re: (Score:2)
We kindof already solve that with the ability to move out of towns with shitty infrastructure. People already choose where to buy their house based on school district (which I always found odd - why not live somewhere cheaper and pay for private school for the years you need it, cheaper in the long run compared to paying the higher taxes forever, and better for society as the poorer neighborhood can use your tax money to improve their own schools). If there's too many potholes, frequent brownouts, or lead
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, look at the UK's retail electricity and gas markets for example. I can choose my supplier at will.
Rgds
Damon
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Interesting that monopoly power is frequently decried, often with the proposed solution of a government takeover.
When the government has enforced monopoly power, where do you go for recourse?
The voting booth.
Re: (Score:3)
This doesn't sound right... (Score:3, Informative)
August 5, 2011: Democratic US Senator Bernie Sanders: "These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger. Who's the banana republic now?"
Re:This doesn't sound right... (Score:5, Informative)
Bernie Sanders didn't say actually that. The quote is from an article he shared on his website. https://www.sanders.senate.gov... [senate.gov]
You might argue that because he republished it that he believes every word in it, but you could also argue in better faith that almost a decade ago, when Venezuela was a very different place than it is today, he considered that article with a passing reference to Venezuela "food for thought."
You could also consider that maybe, as bad as it sounds, he's saying that even poor Venezuela has a better grasp on Democracy than the United States has. I think that's not true, but the US is certainly no longer the home of the free, nor the brave.
self-inflicted (Score:5, Insightful)
This is an example of a democracy that pretty much voted itself out of existence. Voluntarily.
Pay attention, people. "Socialist" and "Illiberal Democratic" governments are basically dictatorships or oligarchies wrapped up with a shiny bow. Several more will probably go this route before the lesson is learned. Have a little faith in your system, western democracy. You'll be proven right in the long run.
The "wisdom" of crowds. (Score:3)
Or rather the idiocy. It happened in nazi germany too (yes, hello godwin but its a valid point this time) and tends to happen when things are going really badly. But instead of evaluating the situation calmly the halfwits believe all the I'll Solve It All crap of some opportunistic dictator in waiting and vote him in. The rest is inevitable.
Re: (Score:3)
Venezuela should serve as a warning against populism. Far right populists are just as bad, if not worse.
Also Venezuela was screwed by sanctions which helped people like Chavez and Maduro come to power. When the people are suffering is when populists take over, so if you want to avoid that stop trying to make countries worse in the hope that people blame the leaders because it's actually quite rare that they do.
Re: (Score:2)
Then, as conditions worsened due to the sanctions,
Venezuela has oil. And they have customers willing to buy it. Like China. Who would be more than happy to "blow a raspberry" towards the USA over sanctions and sell them water purification technology.
Whatever happened to Communism, the plight of the working class and the glorious one world order?
Re:self-inflicted (Score:4, Interesting)
O, wait, the Great Firewall won't let you call me and speak freely. Oh well. Your poverty will be evident from the other side of the planet.
There has never been a functioning communism larger than about 100 people. Any government calling itself communist is using it as a thin wrapping to (poorly) hide a dictatorship or hereditary oligarchy. And that's exactly what China is - a hereditary oligarchy with a command economy that's been partially capitalized. I'm not saying this is bad or good. It just "is". But let's be honest about it.
Re: (Score:2)
Kind of hard to blame it all on sanctions when you let oil infrastructure (with oil being Venezuela's primary natural resource and export) rot and decay while the families of the Chavezistas live like royalty.
Re: (Score:2)
> An alternative narrative is that Venuzuela refused to give concessions to powerful US
On a smaller scale, AOC did the same thing in New York. Screw those capitalist pigs! We won't let them tell us what to do!
Fidel Castro did the same thing in Cuba.
So the capitalist pigs take their ball and go home. And everybody is worse off. Isn't socialism wonderful?
Who is this news for? (Score:2, Offtopic)
Drudgedot, news for conservatives. We tell you what to think.
Re: (Score:2)
I was going to come here and say it's time to go back to drinking low alcohol beer like they did in the old days because it was better for you than most water sources.
Of course as soon as I took a few seconds to read the first post, I realized no one would be talking about how to fix the issue.
Re: (Score:2)
Relax (Score:2)
More inmigrants! (Score:3)
The Power of Propaganda (Score:2, Insightful)
Note the consensus on how everything which happens to Venezuela is self inflicted. That is the power of propaganda.
Venezuela is collapsing under an american sanctions regime. Under this regime they still told the US puppet Guaido to go fuck himself so the regime change operation has stalled and all they have are the sanctions. People tend to forget that sanctions can destroy countries.
It's not even relevant anymore how incompetent the -elected- government is. They are, but the current problems are largely
Re:The Power of Propaganda (Score:5, Interesting)
And before you move on to blame it on a dependence on oil next, Iran has 22% of their GDP from oil whereas Venezuela is at 30% based on a list on Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] that was taken from World Bank Group's data. There are plenty of countries that are far more dependent on oil as a % of their GDP that haven't collapsed either.
They have better quality oil and allies (Score:3)
China's a Marxist country, right? They seem to be doing just fine of late. Or are they not Marxist today? It seems to me that when China's doing bad their Marxist and when they're doing good they're Capitalist. Like Schrodinger's straw man or something.
Socialism is so great! (Score:2)
Anything not collapsing in Venezuela? (Score:2)
Queue the Apologists (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
"[...] Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money."
- Margaret Thatcher -
Some nice irony for you here (Score:5, Insightful)
The ironic point in your comment here is that you're quoting the former prime minister of a country much of whose mainstream politics are referred to as "evil socialism" by our country's conservatives. For instance, socialized medicine is so successful and mainstream over there that Thatcher was never able to touch the NHS in any meaningful way. It's a good thing too, their socialism seems to work pretty well for them where as our private sector solutions seem kind of shitty and very over priced.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's almost as if when you have laws against inter-state insurance coverage and make it flat out illegal for hospitals to list prices for procedures that prices mysteriously shoot through the fucking roof. Then you have Obamacare, which unlike the fantasy sold to the American public raised prices across the board.
US "private sector" overpriced (Score:5, Insightful)
Whatever -ism you want to call it, most US high medical prices are enabled by laws restricting medical competition. That's how a 2/3rds century old 2 - 5 cent pill morphs into a $750 pill, or disappears entirely to replaced by an inferior $20-$50 patented pill. This problem repeats itself throughout the chains of US medicine. Some of it is safety based, way overpriced, so you die by the of lack of things.
Note: We've had to use overseas sources to get medical solutions where pretty much everybody else died due to inadequate technical options, broke, or both.
Re: (Score:3)
For instance, socialized medicine is so successful ...
This is misleading. Healthcare is not a typical example, but a rare exception.
Capitalism mostly works. Socialism mostly doesn't.
Healthcare is an exception to this rule because the normal principles of free markets don't apply: There is an asymmetry of information, prices are not transparent, it is difficult to compare providers, or to switch even if dissatisfied. Furthermore, healthcare is seen as a "public good" and an entitlement that should be available even to those who would otherwise be unable to a
Re: (Score:3)
How about social security and public education?
I'm not advocating overall socialist control of the economy, I would certainly agree that capitalism is much better at generating wealth for instance. There are, however, plenty of socialist elements even in our own country (let alone in other Western countries) that work pretty well and they're typically in areas where the "generating of wealth" really doesn't belong.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: Some nice irony for you here (Score:3)
Re: Some nice irony for you here (Score:5, Insightful)
"1. They import cheap doctors and nurses from Africa , thereby denying the brightest and best to the countries they are from."
Every single other first world nation has at least a reasonably successful system of socialized medicine. Are you really trying to make the claim they're all built on imported labor? Show me some data because that doesn't sound right at all
"2. The tax rate in the UK is Very high, nothing is for free."
And yet as a whole society their medical systems costs them half of what ours does. Our costs are just hidden under multiple layers, theirs are up front which I would very much prefer.
"Add on top is extremely mismanaged and top heavy management wise."
And yet some how run at half the cost of our own. Once again, show me some data here because I don't think you are correct.
"They closed a LOAD of A&E depts because it was costing too much, did you have an accident and live in one those areas? Have fun driving to the next A&E ward.
Oh..for added fun..add the 10 billion pounds they spent trying to upgrade to IT systems in the NHS, made a complete balls up of it, then cancelled it!"
Hey, guess what? We're experience a load of full fledged hospital closures all over our rural areas. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Ma... [arcgis.com] so we're right there in the same boat.
"That's Socialism in a nutshell for you, they will eventually run out of money.
That's talking out your ass for you. eventually some one comes along who actually knows what they're talking about and makes you look silly.
Re: (Score:2)
Let's be thankful that our government only runs out of my money constantly.
Re: (Score:3)
The issue here is first and foremost, Maduro and what is essentially a dictatorship trying to keep a populist message going while ignoring and whitewashing things that go wrong. It's the cult of personality where he refuses to admit that things are bad lest he lost popular support and instead redirects blames to others.
Socialism is just a minor sideline here. It would fail this badly too if you had the same sort of right wing dictatorship as well.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The US Government that has people queueing up to buy its bonds at record to close to record low rates?
Running out of other people's money is the last problem US government currently has.
Re:Ladies and Gentlemen - Michigan (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds as bad as Michigan. Looks like maybe just picking the right ideology isn't the cure for all problems.
Re: Ladies and Gentlemen - Michigan (Score:3)
Thats what I was going to say, Flint, MI communist party? What I heard is this is going to be new normal for a lot of places in the world. Even here in the US, you would not be a fool to have the capacity to filter your own water on hand.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: Ladies and Gentlemen - Michigan (Score:5, Informative)
All political sides apart, you're talking about a few cities that had problems because of careless or incompetent people making decisions.
In the summary, they're talking about the entire country's infant mortality rates climbing six folds.
In the US, you're talking about a local problem. In Venezuela, it looks far more systemic.
Re: (Score:2)
In the US, you're talking about a local problem. In Venezuela, it looks far more systemic.
Exactly, Venezuela has more than three times the population of Michigan, you can't compare them.
Sure California has a larger population than Venezuela, but California is about half the land area.
Alaska has almost twice the area of Venezuela, but only 1/10th the GDP.
Re: (Score:3)
In the US, you're talking about a local problem. In Venezuela, it looks far more systemic.
In both cases you're talking about a few people making a decision that impacts a group. The populations are not an indication of whether a problem is systemic or not.
Re: Ladies and Gentlemen - Michigan (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Ladies and Gentlemen - Michigan (Score:5, Interesting)
The story is more complicated [npr.org] than that [mlive.com]. The city switched its water-supply at the order of the third in a series of four "emergency managers", each appointed by the governor. Maybe they got to the point of needing an Emergency Manager because of 20 or 30 years of "socialist" city policies, but the Flint City Council and Mayor had no power to stop the water supply switch when it happened; they were just bystanders. (Unpaid bystanders, too; the city manager suspended their salaries, or tried to.)
As an aside to an aside, the first pro-Trump billboard I ever saw was just outside Flint.
Re: Ladies and Gentlemen - Michigan (Score:4, Informative)
All they had to do was add a small bit of some standard chemical into the water to prevent corrosion, but they somehow missed this and everything went to hell in a hand basket.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Government functions best when it can play its role as arbiter and overseer. When it owns and operates its own functionality it will NOT blame itself for its failings.
That's not ideology - that's typical human action and ego - tale as old as time.
Re:Ladies and Gentlemen - Michigan (Score:5, Insightful)
Many of the worst pollution incidents were due to private companies, not the government. Private companies have been known to poison their customers and then try to cover it up. Tobacco is the obvious example.
The line between corporations and government in the US is somewhat indistinct anyway.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
As I've said elsewhere, both are equally capable of being dicks.
In a well functioning democracy the government is usually a bit better at self-regulating though. For example in the UK the civil service and local councils are usually ahead of the private sector on things like worker's rights. Pay is usually worse though.
Re: Ladies and Gentlemen - Michigan (Score:2)
Do you really want to pick Michigan for socialism vs capitalism? Just read up on the Chicago Meat Packing Industry to see what the Private industry can do in terms of environmental & social harm.
Re: (Score:2)
When a government owned utility fails there is no one to blame but the people themselves. The government isn't a fairy godmother here to right injustices. The government is YOU.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Rick Snyder was a Republican.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Never forget, communism killed 160 million people in the 20th century
Not really, no. Some people claiming to be Communists killed a lot of people, but that doesn't mean it was Communism's fault any more than it was the fact that they were atheists or Christians or white men.
I'd also point out that if you really want to compare Communism and Capitalism in the 20th century you have to be honest about the two. So when you compare the USSR to the US, note that the USSR started from a much worse position. Most people were still farming with wooden tools and in 30 years it was win
Re: (Score:2)
Hey guys! We want price and labor controls because that is what Communism calls for. But when a country does that it is not Communism because to get those price and labor control to work there must be an authoritarian government that seizes industry and forces people to obey those edicts and controls. This results in corrupt authoritarian government and so it cannot be Communist because it's supposed to be a workers paradise via price and labor control. Therefore anyone that dies from the corrupt authoritar
You should also mention... (Score:3)
"Venezuela has socialism, and this sort of thing is the inevitable result. Scandinavia has capitalism with social programs. People who leap to defend "socialism" usually end up defending "capitalism with social programs" instead. Similarly, people who attack capitalism are usually attacking some libertarian/anarchist fantasy of unregulated businesses, which is orthogonal to capitalism."
Going by what you're saying it should then also be noted that when American conservatives rail on the policies of the Democ
Re: (Score:2)
And voting for the party who's only agenda is to ensure corporations pay no tax at all is voting for their own interests? Sir, you might want to rethink your position, unless you happen to be Jeff Bezos in real life.
How many times are they going to have to trot out voodoo economics before you realize what end of "trickle down" you are on?
Re:Ladies and Gentlemen - Michigan (Score:4, Interesting)
Right, because Red states don't also have a problem with crumbling infrastructure in this country.
Your ideological bias is showing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Similar things happen in the UK two party system, e.g. with the ERG and current far right Tory party take-over or the strongly socialist Momentum movement within the Labour Party.
Normally when they get into government the need to have support from the entire party to get legislation passed usually tames their worst excesses though.
A better solution is to have a system that produces coalition governments. Many European countries have those and they are very effective at keeping the government near the centre
Re: (Score:2)
Or, you know, their economy was entirely based on oil profits which started collapsing at the end of 2008 which, not coincidentally, is the exact same time that Venezuela's economy started collapsing.
They built their economy around the idea that oil prices would continue to rise indefinitely and had no other major export or industry to keep the GDP stable. That was a terrible decision and, when oil prices collapsed, so did the economy.
It doesn't matter whether you're spending money on social services or to
Re:Ladies and Gentlemen - Socialism (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not socialism in this case. It's an economy built almost entirely on a single industry--oil. Whether it's capitalist or communist or somewhere in between, no economy can survive forever built on a single industry, especially when you have some of the worst product within that industry. Venezuela's crude is almost entirely heavy and sour, meaning it's thick and sulfur-rich. That makes it harder to process and refiners must remove the sulfur, adding cost. Large portions of known reserves are simply not economically recoverable without oil prices going significantly higher than they are now.
Had Chavez and Maduro had any significant foresight, they would have started massive investments in other fields when oil prices were high. Other countries that rely heavily on oil for their economies like Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia have recognized this problem for two decades and began their transitions away from economies based essentially entirely on oil (some, like SA, later than others). There's no reason that Venezuela couldn't become bigger in manufacturing, tech, or services except that it was easier to rely on oil that would always be there and would always be expensive--except when it suddenly wasn't and the government had to resort to force and electoral manipulation to stay in power.
A more diverse economy would have been less likely to flounder in 2008 and 2015 when oil prices collapsed. A government not intent on protecting "the revolution" by any and all means necessary and willing to cede power when losing a fair election might not have invited sanctions. A diverse economy with free elections might be a powerhouse economy leading South America right now.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Bingo. Socialism has almost nothing to do with Venezuela's problems. Strongman leadership, profit-tanking, corruption, and government disinterested in the people caused this. Venezuela also went full anti-US, which isn't good for business, because even though the US is nowhere near perfect, they do control the purse strings.
Had the government did something that just be a tool to benefit only Chavez and his successors, Venezuela's economic story would be totally different.
Re: (Score:3)
Socialism has a lot to do with Venezuela's problems. Because as soon as it's economy started slowing, the next thing they did was like every socialist country going into communism. Start seizing companies in order to try and prop everything up, everything from auto manufacturing to toilet paper. You can play it in whatever way you want, but seizing the means of production is always the end result of a country when socialism can no longer ensure bread is getting to the mouths of people.
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong. (Score:4, Interesting)
Venezuela is basically a totalitarian autocratic system. That it has a "socialism" label makes no difference. The situation would be the same if it were called a democracy.
I'm not saying that socialism is good, I'm just saying anything labeled in a certain way doesn't mean the label is true or tied to certain causes alone.
Large parts of the US economy could be called "Corporate Socialism" which would neatly summarize 2008 and the aftermath and the opioid crisis. Just because it's sold to the public as straight A capitalism doesn't mean it is.
Ditto with socialism.
Re: (Score:2)
Venezuela is basically a totalitarian autocratic system.
AKA "socialist" system, just like USSR or Cuba, or you name it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Thankfully this can never happen in a capitalist run water supply... oh... wait [wikipedia.org]...
Let's be honest here, both systems fail if left running unchecked. Moderation is the key.
Re: Ladies and Gentlemen - Socialism (Score:2)
Ladies and Gentlemen - War for Oil (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
No they are a Communist Country.
Yes you can be rich in China... but the Government of China has it's dick in your ass 24/7 so there is a cost to being rich or popular in China because they "help" you run your business. Basically, Slavery! You are not allowed to say or do anything that makes China look bad or else.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Liar. Most people in China live in apartments, often very small, dingy ones. Ever been to the mainland? Definitely not US Surburbia.
Re:Ladies and Gentlemen - Socialism (Score:5, Informative)
China is a socialist country. It is now a richer nation than the USA, and 95% of citizens own their homes.
Actually, they are not. The US GDP is almost 20 trillion where the Chinese is only 12 trillion. Here this should help you to understand things a little better.
http://statisticstimes.com/eco... [statisticstimes.com]
Sure, China leads the US in some areas but in overall wealth, China is still far behind.
But for just a mental exerciser lets pretend China is a head. Do you want to own your own home in a country where your speech and internet access is carefully monitored? Where you can be arrested and held with out counsel. Where your choice of religions might place you in a "re-education" camp?
How about one living in the country that is causing the most environmental damage to the planet? Which is China.
Think about it for awhile.
Re: (Score:3)
Well we have already established that per capita is useless in the grand scheme of things. The only thing that really matters is total output of pollution for a nation. The output of China is close to twice that of the US. To the planet it doesn't matter if it is coming out of a tail pipe in Beijing or some cow's ass in Danshan.
Re: (Score:2)
Seems like infrastructure is an issue that even Capitalism has problems with....
Re: (Score:3)
That's not really a fair comparison. Michigan and New Jersey are part of the richest nation on Earth, while Venezuela is under heavy sanctions and suffering from external interference in its affairs. Hardly a level playing field.
Re: (Score:2)
Let me fix that for you (Score:3)
Let me fix that for you.
Democrats = moderates = nothing to do with Venezuela
Only in America would most Democrats even be considered Left and no one who understands what the word socialist means would label the majority of them as such. The farthest Left any significant Democrat gets in this country is at most slightly left of center in countries like Germany, the UK, or Australia.
Re: (Score:2)
References?
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, just look at Sweden or most of central Europe, a veritable hellhole! It clearly has nothing to do with failed economic strategies!