Traders Are 'Scared As Hell' Of What's Happening In Venezuela

[freshwest]

28. You talking about 'big hair' or whoever it was? I still keep scratching my head over this thing.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but VZ ought to have been self-sufficient. It's not like it's a desert or anything. That they should have any kind of food shortages... it does not compute.

They have sunshine, they can go solar. They have water, they have land. They have open access to the waters between here and there. I understand they may want things that they cannot manufacture by themselves. But those should not be essentials.

I keep going back to a couple of simple things.

First, perhaps the land is not being used right, and maybe they need to have the ownership freed up to give people more food. They should be a success agriculturally. That doesn't mean they have to have all the modern implements and chemicals. The USA was self-sufficient food wise at one time without those more modern things.

Second, an interesting OP was made here about how we ask the wrong question about the food supply. I'm not sure that I bought all the concepts in the piece, but it was a good starting point. What it said, was that the problem is not a shortage of food, but of the means to buy it. They gave the example of the tourist who visits a country where some people are starving adn others are doing well. They have the money to buy their food, the poor do not and starve to death. It is a human problem, not a problem of capacity, or so that piece claimed.

Third, even sans education, modernity and luxuries, the people should not be in desperate straits. In fact, I'm sure most of them are not. This may all be media spin regarding how bad it really is in VZ.

Fourth, all the problems are political, AFAIK. Not going in the right direction. Are the poor, the wealthy or the government so intransigent that they will never be able to solve basic life issues? Who does not want these things resolved?

Fifth, I don't think that the USA is the reason they are unstable. The forces that are causing this mess are all internal and IMO, have been going on for many, mnay years.

Last, I don't know that the heck the solution is. There is something way off in VZ.