[FerFAL]

This is a video I posted a couple days ago. People likes it, I think the lessons to be learned are pretty good. Today people are taking to the streets in Caracas, Venezuela, protesting against Maduro's regime.

FerFAL

 

[GTOGreg]

Wow, the amount of weight that woman lost @ 29 minutes is incredible. Not from choice, from starvation. Globalist/socialists would love to see a massive die-off, world-wide.

 

[crow.t.robot]

The socialists in VE did not want to cause starvation or unrest in their country. They just relied entirely on oil (95% of GDP), and failed to diversify their economy. When the price of crude tanked, their economy went with it. This happened partly because socialism restricts free markets, partly because the oligarchy benefited from the authoritarian economic restrictions (like multi-tiered exchange rates), and partly from bad luck on the international oil market.

Aside from the political aspects, VE is a sobering example of what can happen to a wealthy nation during an economic crisis. Common medicines are nonexistent, a week's supply of food costs a life's savings (due to ~800% inflation), people are frequently robbed for their phones (the most valuable item an average citizen carries), police are often targeted for their firearms, motorcycles are used in many crimes, people do not go outside after dark, citizen mobs resort to vigilante justice and often kill innocent people in the process, looting and rioting is a daily occurrence, the military seized control of food distribution, stores are empty and closing, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans line up at the Colombian border to cross and buy food... a grim situation at best. And all caused by a predictable fluctuation in oil prices.

 

[match]

Slightly off topic, but in an economic/despotic collapse what value did you see in having a motorcycle?

I read your book and read much on these developing situations and consider such is a likely course for the U.S.

I currently have 2 4x4 SUVs and a DRZ400s enduro motorcycle, but after having a baby I don't ride much and I'm considering selling it but wonder the value in a collapse situation.

 

[bunkerbuster]

I currently have 2 4x4 SUVs and a DRZ400s enduro motorcycle, but after having a baby I don't ride much and I'm considering selling it but wonder the value in a collapse situation.

Street legal dirt bikes = portable, fast, easy to conceal, good gas mileage, can travel off-road, circumvent traffic jams/roadblocks.

 

[Kansas Terri]

I never would have believed that a first-word government would have allowed such hunger. What are they trying to do? Do they not fear for their lives?

 

[IamZeke]

FerFal, with Greece and Venezuela tanking, plus laws and technology changing, you have enough material for a new book.

 

[bunkerbuster]

What is happening in Venezuela is the direct consequence of a long standing well entrenched inept corrupt authoritarian socialist government. It's SAD the Venezuelan populace has to suffer the consequences of chronic government mismanagement.

Diverting scarce food & resources to supply law enforcement & the military is the only way the present government can stay empowered. Which only exacerbates the populaces anger.

Most certainly, eventually mass "starvation" will bring change for the better.

Hopefully, sooner than later.

I know, I would take up arms to make that change, if it were my children starving.

 

[Darthmuerte]

It's SAD the Venezuelan populace has to suffer the consequences of chronic government mismanagement.
.

It isn't "sad", it is karma. Elections have consequences.

 

[Inazone]

It isn't "sad", it is karma. Elections have consequences.

I'm not a big believer in karma, but I think it does demonstrate what happens when a majority of voters pick the candidate that promises to give them for "free" what they'd otherwise have to work for. Invariably, when that candidate is elected and then fails to deliver, there is always something or someone else to blame, whether it's opposition within the government, evil capitalists or foreign powers.

Oops, I think I just described the US.

 

[bunkerbuster]

It isn't "sad", it is karma. Elections have consequences.

Certainly elections have consequences.

But, I doubt the populace voted for mass "starvation" imposed via inept corrupt governance.

Leaders promised "utopia", then let the populace down.

Good stewardship means planning for the good, bad & ugly.
Failure to do so means bad & ugly will happen, as it is in Venezuela now.

 

[Darthmuerte]

Certainly elections have consequences.

But, I doubt the populace voted for mass "starvation" imposed via inept corrupt governance.

Leaders promised "utopia", then let the populace down.

Good stewardship means planning for the good, bad & ugly.
Failure to do so means bad & ugly will happen, as it is in Venezuela now.

Stupid is as stupid does. If they believed those promises of utopia, they are stupid.

 

[Kansas Terri]

Stupid is as stupid does. If they believed those promises of utopia, they are stupid.

Since I was aware of the problem I have been paying attention to what people have said during the interviews. And, I do not believe that economics are taught in the schools at ALL! So, it would not be stupidity so much as ignorance. There are simply some things that the government can do to businesses that they will NOT recover from.

Not one Venezuelan has said that no business will sell at a loss for long, or they will be forced out of business. Instead they blame the government, which is fair enough as surely the government would understand that no business can stay in business if you force them to sell at a loss.

I can see why a socialist country would not want to teach economics. What concerns me is that the USA does not want to teach it either, and so much of our livelihood depends on economics. When I was growing up a half-year clas in high school was required.

 

[crow.t.robot]

It isn't "sad", it is karma. Elections have consequences.

The problem in VE (and maybe elsewhere) is that the electoral system is rigged. Last December, the opposition won a super-majority in the legislative branch. This has never happened since the Bolivarian Revolution, and would have given significant powers (like recalling the president) to the opposition party. So Maduro ignored the voters, brought criminal charges against his political rivals (depriving them of the super-majority), and stacked the judicial branch by appointing 13 of 32 supreme court justices in the lame duck session after losing the election.

 

[dmas]

Motorcycles are a lot of fun and are highly maneuverable. But the cost per mile is not low when you consider maintenance, car tires for example might last 80,000 while bike tires maybe 5,000. And cargo capacity is very low. They are also dangerous.

While Venezuela has biug oil reserves, the price of oil is not only low, their production is way down. Early this year the subsidised price of gas went from a penny a liter to 60 cents per liter.

 

[FerFAL]

Slightly off topic, but in an economic/despotic collapse what value did you see in having a motorcycle?

I read your book and read much on these developing situations and consider such is a likely course for the U.S.

I currently have 2 4x4 SUVs and a DRZ400s enduro motorcycle, but after having a baby I don't ride much and I'm considering selling it but wonder the value in a collapse situation.

Not much really. The big problem with motorcylces in places like Argentina, Venezuela and other high crime areas is that you are just TOO exposes. Its just too easy to get carjacked. Its all about impossible to drive around in one when crime is that bad.

FerFal, with Greece and Venezuela tanking, plus laws and technology changing, you have enough material for a new book.

I know, lots of things to learn. A lot of similarities as well to be honest.
There's obvious things such as having food, growing it and storing lots of it as well besides the other gear we often talk about. But theres also the two very important lessons about a) not voting criminals into power b) If your country is goign down like Venezuela, you just have to get the hell out of there.

LOL............. look who we have to choose from = Clinton or Trump? :

How that came about is beyond me.

I know, right?
It is very concerning no doubt. Theres just no way in which this goes well in the next 4-8 years. I dont like spreading doom but at this point we have to admit that although ending up like Venezuela is VERY unlikely for USA, theres just no way in which Americans will see anything but a worst version fo what they already know in the years to come. Its just impossible with either one of those two as POTUS.
FerFAL

 

[InOmaha]

One big difference here is we grow an enormous amount of food. So much so, we export it, give it away as aid, let it rot on the ground, pay farmers not to produce any more, throw it away because the portions are too big or we don't like left overs, etc., etc. We import a lot, but that's because we like fruit and other types of food year round. However, we could live without bananas or strawberries in January.

The government in Venezuela mismanaged both their oil and their food production at the same time. If they could feed people a few core staples, they wouldn't be happy, but they probably wouldn't riot.

 

[FerFAL]

One big difference here is we grow an enormous amount of food. So much so, we export it, give it away as aid, let it rot on the ground, pay farmers not to produce any more, throw it away because the portions are too big or we don't like left overs, etc., etc. We import a lot, but that's because we like fruit and other types of food year round. However, we could live without bananas or strawberries in January.

The government in Venezuela mismanaged both their oil and their food production at the same time. If they could feed people a few core staples, they wouldn't be happy, but they probably wouldn't riot.

It didnt happen overnight but historically speaking, it happened very fast. In just two or three terms those in power can completely destroy the economy along with national industry.
FerFAL

 

[InOmaha]

It didnt happen overnight but historically speaking, it happened very fast. In just two or three terms those in power can completely destroy the economy along with national industry.
FerFAL

That's the truth. Nationalize it then give it to people who have no idea what they are doing.

The US has slowly been loosing the family farm to corporations. Smaller family run farms meant more people who knew how to grow food in their local areas and since they lived there, they didn't necessarily take short term profits over questionable land practices. Corporate farms bring some economy of scale but can also create vertical silos of production, lack of crop rotation, and over reliance on maximizing yields of the same crop with fertilizers, pesticides, etc.

Mismanagement of large corporate farms by people seeking short term goals, combined with government corruption giving the farms over to accountants and people with little to no knowledge of growing food, could decimate the industry in a short time frame.

The US government has messed up several times recently by subsidizing certain crops or industries that use them (like ethanol). So it could happen here. It think it wouldn't happen in the time frame of the next couple of election cycles though. It would have to go through a crony capitalist stage where the government set policies that favor corporations over family farms to the point most people sell out.

 

[Ankylus]

This happened partly because socialism restricts free markets, partly because the oligarchy benefited from the authoritarian economic restrictions (like multi-tiered exchange rates), and partly from bad luck on the international oil market.

Amazingly, socialist political systems are plagued with "bad luck". Do you think that restricted markets and a corrupt, indulgent oligarchy are not functions of the socialist political system? No, they are inevitable characteristics of socialist political systems. Socialism always ends in failure, and the purer the socialism, the more spectacular the failure.

“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as "bad luck.”


― Robert A. Heinlein