Maduro blames Venezuela's biggest food company for scarcities

[Flatulo]

13. Now you're the one who's thinking binary.

Our current economic mess was largely of our own making, the result of decades of deregulation (from both D and R administrations) and a free-wheeling housing market that seemed to know no upper limit.

People were buying properties that they couldn't afford, getting loans from lenders who were ridiculously over-leveraged, which loans were then turned into brand-new investment products which were guaranteed to blow up. There was no secret meeting of global elites planning this thing. It was just a joyride that hit a brick walk.

So yes, our system is screwed up. I agree with you that Adam Smith would roll over at our excesses.

I'm a pragmatist. I look at places that seem to be working well and say Gee, lets try some of that. Places that seem to be working well are the Northern European social democracies - Demark, Germany, Finland etc. They have high taxes, a strong social safety net and are very hard-working and industrious people who are also the happiest in the world. They are also very successful capitalists with a high standard of living and exports that are the envy of the world (Audi, BMW etc).

The Southern European economies are in the shitter due to corruption, poor tax enforcement, bloated government, and a much more laid-back attitude towards productivity.

I think Venezuela is on the wrong track. I may have a simplified understanding of economics, but I sure as hell know more than the current leadership there. They seem to be governing under a model of radical redistribution, low productivity, and near absolute dependance on a single resource, a resource that the rest of the world is tying to rid itself of. Does that sound like a good economic model to you? Add to that a deeply divided populace which the regime is egging on by playing off half the people as bad guys, thereby chasing away the best and most productive class, and I say No Thanks, we don't need that up here. All they seem to be accomplishing is spreading misery everywhere.