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Apr. 28, 2006 I feel like I have been having flashbacks as of late. I see left wing governments popping up all over South America, nationalizing(or partailly so) industries, and forming anti American alliances with one another. Silly me, I thought communism had died. I half expect to see Daniel Ortega rise from the ashes and take over Nicaraugua again. Evo Morales, the left wing President of Bolivia, has decided to seize natural gas fields. While not fully nationalizing them he has increased the governments stake in them, much like his good friend Hugo Chavez in Venezeula. What a brilliant idea. Take two poor countries and make them even poorer. The GDP per capita in Bolivia is $2,700 and in Venezuela it is $6,500. In Bolivia 64% of the people live below the poverty line, in Venezuela it is 47%. So these countries do need to improve their economies, but they have an interesting way of going about it. They are doing something old, tired and discredited. They are listening to Fidel Castro, a dinosaur if there ever was one, and trying the Cuban model. And we all know what a smashing success that is.(the fleets of hastily made boats heading to Miami are a testimony to that) The problem is the thinking of the Ancien Regime just doesn't work. No country improves its economy like this. When the rest of the world is privatizing state industries and deregulating the rest. The three stooges are acting like its 1968. Take India as an example. For dedcades it had a socialist oriented economy, then one day it decided that it was tired of being stuck decades behind the rest of the world and became a capitalist country. Today the Indian economy is growing fast, the middle class is growing. Instead Morales, Chavez, and Castro would rather click their jack boots and shout "Vive la Revolucion" than lead their countries to prosperity. Many would say that Capitalism has not been successful in central or South America so this form of Socialism is not only justified it is an improvement. The truth is, that aside from a few countries like Chile, capitalism has never really been tried. Cronyism has been the norm. The market was reserved to the elite of the countries, so the free market wasn't free. Having a bloc of rabidly anti american leaders, with weak economies that will only get worse under this half brained socialism is going to put a strain on the U.S. Having to deal with these governments, (Chavez has close ties to the Iranians, and supports the FARC terrorists in Colombia) and with the people who will decide to leave these countries for greener pastuers could make for a dangerous situation. It's time for the State department to become more actively engaged in South America, after all not all of our problems are in the middle east. ------------ About the author: Craig Chamberlain has written more than 100 articles for Useless-Knowledge.com. Email: craig_chamberlain@hotmail.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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