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To: dynoman

So? Oil money is another name for capital. What you do with money decides whether it is capitalism or not. In both your examples I think the state has claimed the oil industry. It seems that the UAE is investing to make more money (capitalism). This is resulting in a very nice standard of living. Chavez is following another path of bad ideas which is producing more poverty.


465 posted on 03/26/2006 3:10:04 PM PST by ClaireSolt (.)
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To: ClaireSolt
In both your examples I think the state has claimed the oil industry. This is the crux of the matter, in both cases the oil money was not earned. Capitalism is about creating new capital through hard work, not having it fall into your lap or stealing it.

This is way different than starting out with nothing like the US did and earning capital through hard work, before oil was even discovered. The US did not have the advantage of a huge supply of unearned capital to work with.

If you say the UAE has money because of capitalism, you would also have to say Venezuela has money because of socialism, when neither is the case, the reality is they won the oil money lottery. The poor in Venezuela have more now than they did before Chavez, would you say that is because of socialism? No, it is because oil money is greasing their economy to the point the poor have more, their standard of living has went up, which is why Chavez is so popular amoung the lower class there.

466 posted on 03/26/2006 3:46:21 PM PST by dynoman (Objectivity is the essence of intelligence. - Marylin vos Savant)
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