Comrade Hugo Chavez nationalized his oil industry and what to the Venzuelans get? 12 cent a gallon gas, that's what!
What are we waiting for?
As for the auto industry pain and suffering, it is clear now that private enterprise can no more compete in the car manufacturing market than they could send a rocket to Mars. Projects that large are in the realm of the Government. It takes the combined national resources of a large Government to build cars and we must face that fact square in the face or become the dust bin of history in-so-far as this industry is concerned.
Not competing is precisely the goal of the Oil conglomerates. Thats why they shut down refineries, buy out independents and support the invasion of Iraq. Note were not *pumping* much oil out of Iraq but Saddam was. And he quit using the dollar, switching to the Euro, thereby signing his own death certificate.
The "dust bin" is in the eye of the beholder and corporate America (for the most part) doesn't care squat about the citizens or their culture.
Third world dust bin would be just fine with certain cliques of very influential people.
natalie, george o. was being sarcastic but - seriously - ppl. have a tendency to confuse " socialism" and "comunism"----------------all scandinavian countries, germany, france, even canada have a SOCIALIST type of economic/political system----cuba and n.korea, and ( formerly) soviet bloc are where the COMMUNISM ruled; nationalization of oil industry - as well as nationalization of health care system - will not make us freaking communists......... just get real, people! what it will is just taking the burden off our wallets............
George Orwell wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mixmaster.it:
They had 12 cent a gallon gas before Hugo Chavez.
You cannot artificially lower the price of a commodity without the costs squirting out somewhere else. Ever wonder why Venezuela has always been so poor?
A repeat of the other instances where we imposed price controls throughout our history? You are either very young, have a short memory or have zero knowledge of history.
Or you're a troll.
The ignorance and hubris of this paragraph is absolutely breathtaking. This has GOT to be a joke post.
I'm not sure what you are waiting for, but the rest of us are waiting for you to move to Venezuela.
Any project that government undertakes will cost on average about 4 times what private enterprise would spend on the same project. The government's fingers in the auto industry cause prices to rise.
Yes, they are socialist. They are so socialist that they border on being communist, if they are not actually communist. They do not admit to being communist, but the economic structure clearly has communist underpinnings.
I'd like to point out that our gasoline and Comrade Hugo's gasoline are not anywhere near the same product. We refine our gas to burn cleaner because we care about stuff like clean air -- I'll save the argument that we do not care enough for another day -- where Hugo doesn't give a rat's ass.
Hugo runs a failing economy, ours is vibrant and thriving.
Hugo inherited a nationalized oil industry, he did not create it. We also have more residents in California than Hugo has in his entire country.
Guess it depends on your idea of socialism. The answer is compared to many democratic countries, yes. However, they are quickly moving to Castro style communism. Chavez is already starting to close down media outlets who disagree with him.
One may agree or disagree with any of President Chavez?s policies or statements, but a reasonable argument can be made that his government has contributed to stabilizing the region.
It has done so by using its $50 billion dollars of foreign exchange reserves to act as a lender of last resort, and provide other forms of financial aid to countries throughout the region. This is what the International Monetary Fund was alleged to have done in the past but almost never did.
It is especially important now that Latin America is going through a major historical transition, where governments of the left now preside over about half of the population of the region.
Latin America is emerging from a long period of failed economic reform policies, known as ?neoliberalism? there, which resulted in the worst economic growth performance in more than 100 years.
Hint: neoliberalism is all the rage here right now and its influence is taking America in the same direction.
From 1980-2000, regional GDP (gross domestic product) per capita grew by just 9 percent, and another 4 percent for 2000-2005. By comparison, it grew by 82 percent in just the two decades from 1960-1980. As a result of the unprecedented growth failure of the last 25 years, voters have demanded change in a number of countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Uruguay.
Venezuela has loaned more than $3 billion to Argentina, and has loaned or committed hundreds of millions of dollars to Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and other countries. It also provides subsidized credit for oil to the countries of the Caribbean, through its PetroCaribe program, and provided many other forms of aid to neighboring countries. These resources are provided without policy conditions attached - unlike most other multilateral (IMF, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank) and bilateral aid. By providing these resources, Venezuela is helping other countries to bring their policies more in line with what voters have demanded, and greatly reducing the threat of economic crises in the process of doing so.
I think he probably meant "bourgeois" (middle class)
Laissez-faire means the theory or system of government that upholds the autonomous character of the economic order, believing that government should intervene as little as possible in the direction of economic affairs. (dictionary.com)
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