We are seeing the creation of another oil welfare state. There are examples in the free world too. Sweden had huge income from their off shore oil rigs that pay for a large amount of there state run health care system.
If the USA had the same kind of income from oil it could eliminate the income tax, at least for a week or so and congress would spend all the money and need more.
I would like to ask, where did all the oil money go before Chaves was elected? So now he is building things like roads and things what happened the last twenty years?
I hate Chaves and would like to see gone before he does any more damage but I would like an explanation how a rich country like Venezuela can have so many poor people unless the rich class were really stealing all the money all along.
We have the same thing ready to happen in Mexico. They have large amount of income from oil and vast costal and beach front property resources yet the 70% of the people are dirt poor.
They have a corn shortage because of the ethanol fad in the US. Can’t the government buy 50 John Deer tractors and some water pumps? Can’t they buy a fertilizer plant?
"...how a rich country like Venezuela can have so many poor people..."
Kleptocracy?? This is my off the top of my pointy head thought on the matter: If all the kleptocracies on the planet went away tomorrow, we'd be a long way to peace.
e.g., Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Mexico, basically the whole African continent, etc. etc.
It would still leave problems like China, USSR, oops, I mean Russia, Iran, etc., but it would be a start.