Posted on 04/03/2016 4:27:06 PM PDT by MtnClimber
nezuela is, once again, in the throes of a full-blown electricity crisis. Citizens complain of unannounced blackouts are shutting down factories, forcing shopping malls to close early, and otherwise wreaking havoc on an already-sputtering economy. The crisis is so severe that President Nicolás Maduro has curtailed working hours for government workers. Last week he even extended the Holy Week holiday to reduce power usage.
And Venezuelans are preparing for even worse news. Many are anxiously monitoring the dwindling water supply of the enormous Guri dam, which supplies roughly half of the countrys electricity. Experts are predicting that, as soon as next week, water levels will reach such a low level that the turbines will have to be shut down. If that happens, the electricity crisis will turn into a catastrophe.
As Venezuelans await the fate, they must be wondering whether their countrys electricity supply will outlast its incompetent government. Because even though the imminent shutdown of the Guri dam is the result of a drought, its the socialist governments incompetence manifested in myriad fashions that is the root cause of the energy crisis.
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...
“Also, the maintenance of an electrical system requires very highly-trained people who possess skills that are useful in many places around the world and are always in demand.”
And spare parts and supplies that must be purchased from industrialized countries with hard foreign currency instead of local billion dollar Bolivar monopoly certificates.
“Technical solution is relatively simple, allow foreign companies to invest in construction of gas fired power plants that could be built quickly, and allow them to charge market rates.”
Would work only if paid 100% hard foreign currency cash up front: this is a lawless regime that “nationalizes” pretty much everything at the drop of a hat.
“Sustainable”
I went to the supermarket and could buy anything that I wanted and must comment that Caciqe a Venezuelan rum was most pleasing.
Chavez and Maduro have destroyed a once lovely nation.
Not on a BET!
When they get here they will be free market Conservatives. They know what socialism looks like first hand and will fight like hell to keep it from happening here.
And the system you describe is fueled by an educational system that does not teach even the most basic facts of economics, like here, so that the voters vote to keep their chains in place. Like here.
Yes, we do. I had a conversation with a young friend last week who was praising "some of Sanders' ideas", meaning he didn't want to be called on specifics, and I asked him if he was aware of what was happening in Venezuela. He said he wasn't. "Socialism means you'll be lining up for toilet paper" was what I told him, and when he scoffed I pulled up a couple of articles under the search criteria "Venezuela" and "toilet paper". He thought I wasn't speaking literally.
So yeah, we need a living example or nobody will bother to look up the history of socialist government, and unless they've seen it themselves they'll believe the Disney fantasies about the thing. Huey and Maduro and the boys made the 1% pay, all right - pay them, and then they joined them. Life under socialism is life under corruption, and anyone who doesn't believe that need only Google it up.
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