Venezuela's 'socialist paradise' turns into a nightmare: medical shortages claim lives as oil price collapses

[lostinblue 1,989]

Venezuela's 'socialist paradise' turns into a nightmare: medical shortages claim lives as oil price collapses

For Jose Perez, a Venezuelan taxi driver from Caracas, the hardest part about watching his wife die from heart failure was knowing just how easily she could have been saved.

The surgeons at the Caracas University Hospital were ready to operate on 51-year-old Carmen, but because of the shortages of medicines now ravaging Venezuela, they had no stocks of the prosthetic artery that would have saved her life.

For a day, the family enjoyed a glimmer of hope after a nationwide search uncovered one such device, but Carmen needed two and a second one was nowhere to be found. She died two days later

“It’s the government who is responsible for my wife’s death, not the doctors,” Mr Perez, 63, told The Telegraph last week. “Things are very bad in this country, and they are getting worse. I feel that we are in a dictatorship. At the start I believed in Chavez, now I can’t look at him. He is in the best place now.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/11385294/Venezuelas-socialist-paradise-turns-into-a-nightmare-medical-shortages-claim-lives-as-oil-price-collapses.html

[LostInAK 43]

I take joy in seeing these oil funded dictatorships (Russia and Venezuela) collapse. I guess socialism only works if you have oil revenue to prop it up. Once you don't... well take a look.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

If you're surprised that the Venezuelan government was running things badly, perhaps you should look into buying a timeshare in Zimbabwe

[LostInAK 43]

If you're surprised that the Venezuelan government was running things badly, perhaps you should look into buying a timeshare in Zimbabwe

Not sure I follow you. What does one have to do with the other unless Zimbabwe was generating a lot of revenue from the sale of oil?

[GandD 5,966]

I take joy in seeing these oil funded dictatorships (Russia and Venezuela) collapse. I guess socialism only works if you have oil revenue to prop it up. Once you don't... well take a look.

That's not at all true. Germany leans towards socialism and they're doing fine. I think any government dependent on one resource as its main source of existence will struggle when the value of said resource plummets. Socialism/dictator/whatever, the result will be the same.

[LostInAK 43]

That's not at all true. Germany leans towards socialism and they're doing fine. I think any government dependent on one resource as its main source of existence will struggle when the value of said resource plummets. Socialism/dictator/whatever, the result will be the same.

Well let me put it this way. When your political survival depends on how many handouts you give to the poor populcae, and then said handouts are interrupted for whatever reason, people are forced to become leaders rather than vote buyers. Merkel is as far as I know is not in the business of fostering class warfare to the extent Mugabe, Chavez, and Maduro are.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Not sure I follow you. What does one have to do with the other unless Zimbabwe was generating a lot of revenue from the sale of oil?

Course you follow me, you're just being obstinate for the sake of it.

[lostinblue 1,989]

If you're surprised that the Venezuelan government was running things badly, perhaps you should look into buying a timeshare in Zimbabwe

Black folks are doing so good managing that country. From the bread basket of Africa to a zero nation that cannot even feed itself .

[GandD 5,966]

Well let me put it this way. When your political survival depends on how many handouts you give to the poor populcae, and then said handouts are interrupted for whatever reason, people are forced to become leaders rather than vote buyers. Merkel is as far as I know is not in the business of fostering class warfare to the extent Mugabe, Chavez, and Maduro are.

I mean, I guess. Any government will be in trouble when the economy tanks. Whoever's not in power will be voted/forced into power. Its the whole "maybe the other guys will do better" syndrome. Greece just did the same thing.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Black folks are doing so good managing that country. From the bread basket of Africa to a zero nation that cannot even feed itself .

Why is it noteworthy to you that Zimbabwe is a predominantly black Country?

[LostInAK 43]

I mean, I guess. Any government will be in trouble when the economy tanks. Whoever's not in power will be voted/forced into power. Its the whole "maybe the other guys will do better" syndrome. Greece just did the same thing.

Liek I said, when the economy is based largely on govt. handouts to the poor, and those handouts stop because the oil revenue dries up, there's big problems. Now another guy can come in and make the same promises and not deliver, and the cycle continues unabated for years. Until the people realize that the givt. is not there to be their primary source of income, then forget it, it will just continue on and on, just as it has in some of these countries for decades.

Course you follow me, you're just being obstinate for the sake of it.

I'll post the title in case you can't read it.

Venezuela's 'socialist paradise' turns into a nightmare: medical shortages claim lives as oil price collapses

Does Mugabe in ZImbabwe get a lot of his revenue from the sale of oil?

[GandD 5,966]

Liek I said, when the economy is based largely on govt. handouts to the poor, and those handouts stop because the oil revenue dries up, there's big problems. Now another guy can come in and make the same promises and not deliver, and the cycle continues unabated for years. Until the people realize that the givt. is not there to be their primary source of income, then forget it, it will just continue on and on, just as it has in some of these countries for decades.

But a crashing economy will effect people that work just as much. Probably worse.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'd rather see you tackle the point Lib just brought up. Personally I don't think that should pass without comment.

[Rattlehead 69]

Ah, the wonders of a command economy... We should DEFINITELY try to be more like Venezuela.

[LostInAK 43]

I'd rather see you tackle the point Lib just brought up. Personally I don't think that should pass without comment.

If you got a problem with it, say something. Don't ask others to do your dirty work. A bit lazy on your part if you ask me.