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dookifex_maximus posted:I can address this: communism needs to fulfill 100% of the economy's needs to succeed in its stated goals whereas in capitalism the only need is for one agent to exist from year to year to keep the economy "going" and yet capitalism is more successful than communism even when you measure both by the communist standard?
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Aug 24, 2016 01:36
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 05:06 |
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anyways the problem in Venezuela isn't that they were communists, it's that Chavez was a stupid communist For years they had state-enforced, below market prices for lots of basic staples. Flour & corn, eggs, toilet paper, you name it. When oil was high and the bolivar was more valuable than their neighbor's money, what this meant was that all their own local farmers were driven out of business by imports. Venezuela's home economy literally goes to weeds as farmers and toilet paper-makers all abandon their jobs to move to the city and get their kids into the shiny new state-supported schools. A middle class supported by nothing but state oil revenue appears from thin air. Then oil crashes, the bolivar goes with it, and suddenly all the flour were buying from Columbia, the eggs from Cuba, and toilet paper from the US is 5 times as expensive. But Chavez (and later Maduro) don't raise the prices you're allowed to sell for! So if you run a venezuelan grocery store, you will be losing money if you stock anything on your shelves. Naturally, nobody orders anything and the shelves go bare. The only time flour and TP are in evidence is when some party stooge forces the issue. If you are a baker, you have to decide between making bread from 75% sawdust or just abandoning your business and move to the countryside where they can't find you. Meanwhile the government is printing extra money to pay the salaries of all the civil servants and oil workers, so heavy inflation begins to take hold. The real prices (ie black market prices) for staples shoot up into the stratosphere, the currency loses value even faster because everyone knows it's worthless. if you are a communist dictator, your one job is to avoid re-creating a bad Ayn Rand book about the evils of communism.
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Aug 24, 2016 02:32
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