On March 08 2013 12:31 Nevermind86 wrote:Well I guess I'm forced to comment again because some venezuelans came to this thread to rant about how their parents had it easier some 30 years ago, sadly most of these people are
ignorant about our own country, so let me explain something to people reading this thread that wonder why some people supported Chavez and why some people (mostly white people, there is a reason) hated Chavez a lot, while whinning about their lost
priviledges, that ironically they would never get in the two countries they praise the most: The USA and Spain, why is that? Well because I know that people in those countries actually work pretty damn hard, which they as a social group never did (in general, not individually), I'll explain this:
It all started...
-Venezuela in the mid 70's was incredibly rich, oil production was around 2.4 million barrels a day, the price of oil was proportionaly way higher than right now and the population was a mere 11 millions compared to the 30 million of today, which around 5.5 millions are colombian immigrants. Those days were called the golden age Saudi Venezuela, the government working tighly with Fedecamaras (organisation of the big enterprises of 13 economic sectors, basically an organization to promote monopoly) designed a strategy called CORDIPLAN or plan of the nation, the objective was to industrialize the country with oil money, the guys behind this idea were: Gurmensindo Rodriguez and Pedro Tinoco, the two biggest bankers of the country, the second came with the idea of creating a government bureau called Ministery of economic planning, autonomous similar to the FED, the guy in charge was to be appointed by Congress for a 5.5 year term but could not be removed by the executive branch "so politicians don't meddle with economic policies", as you guessed it, he himself was appointed as the minister, in the Fedecamaras Hall after a presidential speech. (!).
CORDIPLAN:-Nationalize the oil industry. The dictatorships that ended in 1956 put in the oil consessions-contracts that the private companies properties (machinery, some buildings, etc) will pass to the hands of the state after a 40 year period, it was due to start happening in 1978 but the oil industry was nationalized in 1976... That is the government
paid for all the property that was going to get for free in only 2 years... (!)
-Gurmensindo Rodriguez's idea that "anybody that can contribute with the state should do it" meant that public schools and universities now demanded inscription fees that poor people could not afford. They were low, true, but I remenber a neighbour asking people for money so my best friend could go to a public highschool (those laws were abolished around the year 2001). That also meant that middle class families had to buy all sort of medical supplies when attending public hospitals.
(why do I put this?, only to show how absolute corruption can destroy a country and that bailing out banks that don't need it like Goldman Sachs is not the worse trick of the book).
With these and other measures the state had huge amounts of dollars, all this money then was used to create an industrial city that was the most modern in all of LA, called Ciudad Guayana, there a lot of public enterprises were created: To exploit iron, steel, gold, aluminium, etc, these as you can see are basic materials, the trick is that these then were going to be sold at
1% or 2% over the production cost to Fedecamaras's industries, this is obviously a HUGE subsidy that increased industrialization, in theory these enterprises getting raw materials very cheaply could then produce goods, some of them did but in reality most of them just sold the damn thing nationally or internationally at an international price for a fat profit. That was only half the subsidy because there was another one almost as big, these public industries didn't have to pay for electricity because, they argued, that was just another industry of the government, considering the amount of electricity it takes to run an steel factory... it's obvious that production cost dropped significantly and directly benefited the
private-parasites or burguesia parasitaria that worked around them (term coined by the next governments to criticize this model). Obviously the whole thing was doomed to fail, in case you are wondering what happened: The cheap steel and aluminium sold in the US was banned when the US gov found out that the industry didn't pay for electricity, since it was declared unfair trade, with production cost increasing quite a lot afterwards and nobody to buy those huge quantities of raw materials
those two industries went broke to this day., the other industries that were subsidized in many many fields slowly went bankrupt when the subsidies could not be sustained, the lasts ones being cut in 1989 by FMI advice, which was the sane thing to do, but brought a lot of unemployment and what not because so many industries closed in such a short period of time.
![[image loading]](http://www.aporrea.org/imagenes/gente/maria-corina-machado-bush.jpg)
(Maria Corina Machado, she is a former 'oposition' presidential candidate and daughter of one of the guys that benefited from cheap steel, known back then as Machado the steel king).
This crazy model that brough huge economic growth before collapsing in 1980, was really shortlived since it only lasted 4 good years and then a steady decline. It was called, like I said before, the golden age or Saudi Venezuela by the same people that benefited. The change in mentality back then was huge, people going from small towns to the big cities could easily find work for the government for huge/disproportionate salaries, especially if they had an university degree, my mom was one, she graduated in civil engineering and thanks to my grandfather's contacts could work for the government for around 1100$ a month, easily 6-7 times today's minimum wage, even though she was a low ranked engineer, a job without much responsibilities, a lot of people had it much better. Venezuela then was known for having huge amounts of expensive sports cars and for importing
real size lakes of scotch whisky and european champagne.
paid by these same very rich midlee class.
The mentality of the people changed so much also thanks to propaganda of the media, owned of course by the same people who benefited from subsidies. Some people, especially white people who went to universities were raised in these types of homes, they think it's normal for a middle class person in any country to be drinking expensive champagne every weekend or change sport cars every year, I'm honest with this, it's no exaggeration... Back then so many people traveled to Miami that that city it's said (in the media back then, arrogant as always) was built by venezuelans, because a lot of venezuelans moved there or went for vacations, around 40$ billions were invested in housing by venezuelans in that city alone. They think a period like that can happend again, they are what you could say believers in the american dream we lived for only a few years, all of them are very pro-US but in a crazy way, not a realistic-good way, it's like going to NY rich parts and thinking the whole of US is like that, it is not. An anecdote, I have an aunt that is a singer, she got paid 2000$ to do some small concerts in NY last year, she came here trying to speak english (can't say more than 3 words, really) and feeling "american" and saying how great it's winning 2000$ in a week's work, she doesn't realize that's peanuts to live in NY... She's exactly from that demographic.
The president who was in charge during this period died in that city Miami, he exiled himself after being prosecuted by justice on corruption charges.
Half, that is 3 out of 6, of venezuelan presidents have died in the US escaping corruption charges. Actually Chavez is only the third venezuelan president to die in our country after the democracy, the other 3, like I said...
It's sad how the media can manipulate minds and how one can live in a bubble, Chavez also created a welfare bubble for the poor people and they are for a rude awakening, it's already happening and a complete true but at least resources have been invested in the country this time and everything isn't going to waste, people getting subsidies will see them reduced like the huge reduction in wages done this year, but the disaster of the 80's it's not comming back, I predict people in the future will see Chavez's government as a second golden age depending if they were on the ends of subsidies or not, just like the leftovers of what once was a huge very rich middle class still do, so many years after.
EPT
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