'This Is Going To End Ugly': Venezuela's Power Outage Drags On

[TomSea]

World
'This Is Going To End Ugly': Venezuela's Power Outage Drags On
March 11  Merrit Kennedy


Amid the power outage, people in Caracas push a car without fuel to one of the few gas stations that has its own electric generator.

Venezuela has been in the grip of a crippling blackout for four days — and the humanitarian situation there is growing increasingly dire.

Signs of the crisis are everywhere you look in the Venezuelan capital. "Drive around Caracas, and you see long lines of cars waiting for hours at the few gas stations still operational," NPR's Philip Reeves reported from the city.

"Motorists park on highways, cell phones aloft, searching for a signal. The rich have taken refuge in luxury hotels. The poor stand in lines in the street," Reeves added.

Read more at: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/11/702179263/this-is-going-to-end-ugly-venezuela-s-power-outages-drag-on

[Hoodat]

[quote\'This Is Going To End Ugly'[/quote]

Duh, it's socialism.  It always ends up this way when you don't have a prison wall like Cuba or the Soviet Union to prevent people of ability from escaping.

[roamer_1]

[quote\'This Is Going To End Ugly'

Duh, it's socialism.  It always ends up this way when you don't have a prison wall like Cuba or the Soviet Union to prevent people of ability from escaping.

Still an amazement to me how many folks just won't walk off. 

[Bill Cipher]

Still an amazement to me how many folks just won't walk off. 

Where should they go?  The US?

[roamer_1]

Where should they go?  The US?

Heck, just back up in the sticks. They live there. They ought to know how to make do on the land...
If I knew how, it would be a thousand times easier down there than up here. The jungle AND the high plains that is their cattle country are incredibly productive. I don't see no sense in being hungry when you can walk off and pick your food off the trees.

Kinda like the ghetto. I cannot understand why a kid wouldn't just put on his keds and start walking.

It ain't like it can get much worse.

[Sanguine]

Heck, just back up in the sticks. They live there. They ought to know how to make do on the land...
If I knew how, it would be a thousand times easier down there than up here. The jungle AND the high plains that is their cattle country are incredibly productive. I don't see no sense in being hungry when you can walk off and pick your food off the trees.

Kinda like the ghetto. I cannot understand why a kid wouldn't just put on his keds and start walking.

It ain't like it can get much worse.

Because they are more afraid of that which they don't know or understand.  The devil you know and all that.

[Smokin Joe]

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

[Smokin Joe]

Heck, just back up in the sticks. They live there. They ought to know how to make do on the land...
If I knew how, it would be a thousand times easier down there than up here. The jungle AND the high plains that is their cattle country are incredibly productive. I don't see no sense in being hungry when you can walk off and pick your food off the trees.

Kinda like the ghetto. I cannot understand why a kid wouldn't just put on his keds and start walking.

It ain't like it can get much worse.

Yep.

[roamer_1]

Because they are more afraid of that which they don't know or understand.  The devil you know and all that.

 

Seems to me the devil you know is the whole dang problem in the here and now...

[Sanguine]

Seems to me the devil you know is the whole dang problem in the here and now...

Yes, but that's not how most people operate.  But, then most of them live in cities, don't they?

[Smokin Joe]

Yes, but that's not how most people operate.  But, then most of them live in cities, don't they?

@ Sanguine @roamer_1

I believe y'all are dealing with a combination of adaptability under duress and normalcy bias. These folks have been hunkered down so long, they think the lights are going to come back on.

[Sanguine]

@ Sanguine @roamer_1

I believe y'all are dealing with a combination of adaptability under duress and normalcy bias. These folks have been hunkered down so long, they think the lights are going to come back on.

Yes, and I don't know that it would be much different here.

[Smokin Joe]

Yes, and I don't know that it would be much different here.

It might when the street gangs went scrounging....and met armed resistance.

[Sanguine]

It might when the street gangs went scrounging....and met armed resistance.

Yes, that bit would be quite different.

[roamer_1]

@ Sanguine @roamer_1

I believe y'all are dealing with a combination of adaptability under duress and normalcy bias. These folks have been hunkered down so long, they think the lights are going to come back on.

Maybe they're just city folks and don't know how to make do... 

[Smokin Joe]

Maybe they're just city folks and don't know how to make do... 

(same thing) 

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

Maybe they're just city folks and don't know how to make do... 

A lot of the population has been on the dole their whole lives. 

This is a good summary of the history of Socialism in Venezuela:

https://mises.org/wire/venezuela-chavez-prelude-socialist-failure

including this gem:

Under this premise, a nationalized oil industry would finance cheap gasoline, “free” education at all levels, healthcare, and a wide array of other public services.

[truth_seeker]

@ Sanguine @roamer_1

I believe y'all are dealing with a combination of adaptability under duress and normalcy bias. These folks have been hunkered down so long, they think the lights are going to come back on.

Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain, they lived under Soviet "communism" for decades.  Perhaps the mose extreme was East Germany.

Anyway, when the Berlin Wall came down, the various satellites moved to market economies, at different rates.


I bet you could conduct polls today, in Czech, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and they would all say they are better off, and don't want socialism--as it once was for them.


Venezuela was relatively modern and well off not very long ago. I expect there are plenty of folks that would gladly go back to pre-socialism days.

[Smokin Joe]

Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain, they lived under Soviet "communism" for decades.  Perhaps the mose extreme was East Germany.

Anyway, when the Berlin Wall came down, the various satellites moved to market economies, at different rates.


I bet you could conduct polls today, in Czech, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and they would all say they are better off, and don't want socialism--as it once was for them.


Venezuela was relatively modern and well off not very long ago. I expect there are plenty of folks that would gladly go back to pre-socialism days.

It helps if there haven't been a few generations under that yoke. People who yet are alive recall the differences, and how to make that work.

[Absalom]

Heck, just back up in the sticks. They live there. They ought to know how to make do on the land...
If I knew how, it would be a thousand times easier down there than up here. The jungle AND the high plains that is their cattle country are incredibly productive. I don't see no sense in being hungry when you can walk off and pick your food off the trees.

Kinda like the ghetto. I cannot understand why a kid wouldn't just put on his keds and start walking.

It ain't like it can get much worse.

--------------------------------
A reflection.
On the level of development among the Five Continents, Europe is paramount,
w/Asia following; measured against any reasonable category of achievement.
North America has thrived due principally to Great Britain.
Bringing up the rear is Latin America and Africa; but why?
Because the latter have never let go of their ancient tribal neuroses and permitted
the organic development of a distinct culture as well as a society w/norms and
standards acceptable to all classes regardless of their economic status.
It's a matter of maturity, whose attitudes and behaviors, they remain oblivious to.
Yesterday it was Mexico, today it's Venezuela and tomorrow it will be someone else.
Only the name changes.