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Venezuela’s democratic SOCIALIST façade has completely crumbled

I love it when the real world evidence counters the make believe world of Liberalism, Liberals discard the real world evidence..

Real-world evidence such as, say, the FACT that ALL first-world democracies (the freest, best places to live on the planet) are ALL socialized to significant extents, including America.

That, sir, is the real-world evidence that y'all ignore...even though almost every one of you spend every minute of your lives living in that evidence.
 
Comparing countries with high levels of government service with socialist governments is a false equivalence. There's really no comparison. In a socialist country the government is in control of the economy and of industry. It's in this, and not in government services, that all the damage is done. Before this stage in Venezuela Chavez had nationalized hundreds of industries and every one of them was run into the ground. It left Venezuela with no reserves of productivity or supply. That sort of thing doesn't happen in countries that leave production and services in private hands. That some government programs are done well in the US is not a success of socialism. That Sweden, et al., are doing OK is not a success of socialism. Saying that socialism should be done as they do it in northern Europe is tantamount to saying that socialism should not be done at all. Show me a success of socialism in which the government actually ran all or most of the means of production and controlled the economy and you'll have a case.

In other words, you really don't realize that there's a great glaring difference between all-out socialism and the socialized democracy that is found in all first-world democracies. You, like the others, are stuck on the word "socialism", and simply can't bring yourself past That Word.
 
Yeah, but so does facism, racism, sexism, ism-ism, and everything else. We're still capitalist at the end of the day. I was a socialist to some extent with my children, but I was a pure capitalist with my employees. My employees weren't surprised when I practiced a little socialism, and my children understood from the start that a quid pro quo was the norm. Your argument is vacuous. People can and do lift themselves up and better their lot in life here all the time, even now. People in Venezuela don't really have that option just now. Socialism actually might work at some point in the future as an economic system, but it's obvious that we're no where near that point right now.

Have you ever lived in a third-world democracy? I have - I've got a house in one, and much of my family lives there. What you find when you live in such a place is not just capitalism, but capitalism unbound, with barely a fraction of the regulation and taxes and "big government" found in ANY of the first-world democracies.

If you really, truly want capitalism, then move to a third-world democracy - then you can see just how powerful the business elite become, how untouchable they become, how they can get away with doggone near anything...because they've got the money. You'd see that in such places, there's no such thing as a "level playing field", and it makes it damn difficult for people to really have truly successful businesses on their own. Oh, it's much easier to start a business there, absolutely! But you can't compete, not with the big boys. What's more, because there's NO effective minimum wage (note the italics - there is a minimum wage, but it's neither enforced nor enforceable), then the people must often rely on corruption and bribes in order to put food on the table.

THAT, sir, is capitalism unbound. Why do you think capitalism's working so well in China now?

Don't get me wrong - capitalism is great...but as in all else, only in moderation. Too little capitalism is bad...and so is too much, as I've seen with my own eyes.
 
Real-world evidence such as, say, the FACT that ALL first-world democracies (the freest, best places to live on the planet) are ALL socialized to significant extents, including America.
That, sir, is the real-world evidence that y'all ignore...even though almost every one of you spend every minute of your lives living in that evidence.

Stop confusing Socialism with Social programs. We are a Democratic Republic. Not a Socialist Republic.
 
And still you cannot see your glaring error. Venezuela is not a stable socialized democracy

Nonsense.....
Venezuela is not a stabilized socialized democracy because corruption took root and took over. Socialism MAKES THAT TOO EASY.
Name your "Stabilized Socialist Democracies and I will show you how they are destabilizing mainly because the US is also destabilizing as Socialist Regressives have gained influence.

Take a look at this list of past and present self-procalimed Socialst states.
Many have horrific records on human rights. Many turned Communist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_socialist_states

After you analyze this, get back to me and tell me again how Socialism is not something everyone should find "Scary"
 
Have you ever lived in a third-world democracy? I have - I've got a house in one, and much of my family lives there. What you find when you live in such a place is not just capitalism, but capitalism unbound, with barely a fraction of the regulation and taxes and "big government" found in ANY of the first-world democracies.

If you really, truly want capitalism, then move to a third-world democracy - then you can see just how powerful the business elite become, how untouchable they become, how they can get away with doggone near anything...because they've got the money. You'd see that in such places, there's no such thing as a "level playing field", and it makes it damn difficult for people to really have truly successful businesses on their own. Oh, it's much easier to start a business there, absolutely! But you can't compete, not with the big boys. What's more, because there's NO effective minimum wage (note the italics - there is a minimum wage, but it's neither enforced nor enforceable), then the people must often rely on corruption and bribes in order to put food on the table.

THAT, sir, is capitalism unbound. Why do you think capitalism's working so well in China now?

Don't get me wrong - capitalism is great...but as in all else, only in moderation. Too little capitalism is bad...and so is too much, as I've seen with my own eyes.

I've lived and worked in third world countries.
 
In other words, you really don't realize that there's a great glaring difference between all-out socialism and the socialized democracy that is found in all first-world democracies. You, like the others, are stuck on the word "socialism", and simply can't bring yourself past That Word.

Words have meaning, and "socialism" doesn't just mean that a government provides a higher level of services. It's not just a matter of semantics. It refers to a concrete difference between governments that try to run everything -- the means of production, the money supply, wages, welfare, and the whole nine yards, and those governments that leave most of the economy in private hands and tax in order to provide services to the people. In the US, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Denmark, et al., we have the latter type of government and not the former. Those are not socialist governments.
 
Have you ever lived in a third-world democracy? I have - I've got a house in one, and much of my family lives there. What you find when you live in such a place is not just capitalism, but capitalism unbound, with barely a fraction of the regulation and taxes and "big government" found in ANY of the first-world democracies.

If you really, truly want capitalism, then move to a third-world democracy - then you can see just how powerful the business elite become, how untouchable they become, how they can get away with doggone near anything...because they've got the money. You'd see that in such places, there's no such thing as a "level playing field", and it makes it damn difficult for people to really have truly successful businesses on their own. Oh, it's much easier to start a business there, absolutely! But you can't compete, not with the big boys. What's more, because there's NO effective minimum wage (note the italics - there is a minimum wage, but it's neither enforced nor enforceable), then the people must often rely on corruption and bribes in order to put food on the table.

THAT, sir, is capitalism unbound. Why do you think capitalism's working so well in China now?

Don't get me wrong - capitalism is great...but as in all else, only in moderation. Too little capitalism is bad...and so is too much, as I've seen with my own eyes.

With respect, a personal anecdote is interesting but not useful. I'll need a link to something that can be verified.
 
Real-world evidence such as, say, the FACT that ALL first-world democracies (the freest, best places to live on the planet) are ALL socialized to significant extents, including America.

That, sir, is the real-world evidence that y'all ignore...even though almost every one of you spend every minute of your lives living in that evidence.

Well regulated free market capitalism is not socialism.

If you want less of anything, tax it.

If you want more of anything, make it profitable to create it.

That is why smoking is heavily taxed and solar energy is heavily subsidized. Do you disagree with this?

Socialists what to tax all for profit business and all profits very heavily. Do you think this will help to grow profits or erode them? Using your answer to this question, should we continue to tax tobacco heavily or subsidize it in order to reduce tobacco use?
 
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