As Venezuela Collapses, Children Are Dying of Hunger (opens in new tab)

(nytimes.com)

42 pointsiKenshu8y ago39 comments

39 comments

This made me so unbelievably sad. A country that was prosperous, educated, full of natural resources, gets destroyed by a corrupt and despicable political system. There is no reason this should happen.

_bfhp8y ago

As Yemen Collapses, NYT Publishes Saudi Arabia Propaganda

pmarreck8y ago

I don't know why this is flagged, but I do see a lot of hot air about socialism in here without much pointing to evidence

JonasJSchreiber8y ago

That was so disheartening. Folks really need to jump off that sinking ship - emigrate - or Maduro needs to be ousted.

vhogemann8y ago

Already happening, thousands of Venezuelans are migrating to Brazil. Some towns near the borders are already having trouble to manage accommodating so many families.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/hungry-ven...

andrenth8y ago

“The Venezuelan government knows, but won’t admit it.”

The NY Times cheered for the socialist regime, but won’t admit it.

pmarreck8y ago

Evidence?

thriftwy8y ago

I used to think that economic collapse after the fall of Soviet communism was the worst outcome possible. Now it is apparent that crash with communism intact is much worse.

eugenerg8y ago

Quoting someone else: "NY Times major piece on starvation in Venezuela.

Carefully avoids mentioning socialism. All the problems are passive voice ("as the economy collapsed," "as hyperinflation appeared") or exogenous ("oil prices collapsed").

Walter Duranty lives."

nitwit0058y ago

> The Venezuelan government has used food to keep the Socialists in power, critics say. Before recent elections, people living in government housing projects said they were visited by representatives of their local Socialist community councils — the government-aligned groups that organize the delivery of boxes of cheap food — and threatened with being cut off if they did not vote for the government.

It does, however, directly badmouth the Socialists.

toomuchtodo8y ago

It was government corruption, not socialism that led to the current crisis.

Socialistic Scandinavia countries that have sovereign wealth funds from their oil extraction prosper.

tomohawk8y ago

All systems have corruption. However, when the government nationalizes food distribution and production, that corruption has a much larger impact.

1 more reply

spraak8y ago

Genuinely curious and not trying to troll: how successful would Scandinavian socialism be without oil?

2 more replies

iyrkki_odyss8y ago

None of the scandinavian countries are socialistic.

X86BSD8y ago

That’s not quite accurate. They also have the US paying largely for their defense needs. That saves them a ton of money.

X86BSD8y ago

Socialism ends this way every. Single. Time. “If only socialism was implemented correctly for a change!” The snowflakes chant. Ignoring history. Implementing more and more socialist programs at home. Sigh.

dang8y ago

Since we've asked you several times to stop posting ideological boilerplate and political battle to HN, and instead you do this, we've banned this account.

I suppose I should add that no, that's not because we're $ideological_flavor.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15947441 and marked it off-topic.

andrenth8y ago

How was that post ideological boilerplate? It’s a description of facts.

1 more reply

oculusthrift8y ago

ah yes. we all know sweden and switzerland and norway are about to collapse and have people die of starvation on the streets.

tomohawk8y ago

Since socialism is so successful, maybe they should nationalize food production and distribution too? It's gotta be better than using a capitalistic market economy for that, right?

holydude8y ago

Except these countries are capitalist with a pinch of socialism here and there. And it is not all perfect over there. Besides their companies are often involved in corruption scandals wherever they operate. I call them hypocritical social democrats :-)

madengr8y ago

Thanks to western democratic principles. You have conveniently ignored all their neighbors in the east block.

1 more reply

madengr8y ago

Yep, a track record of failure over the last 100 years.

X86BSD8y ago

Sweden has a national debt of 42% of its GDP. You’re free to call that healthy if you wish but that’s redlining to most of us.

And again they also have no defense costs except toys to play with because the US pays for their defense.

So yeah.

2 more replies

frabbit8y ago

The NYT crying crocodile tears over dying children is a bit hard to take.

Looks like the USA's determined to continue carrying out its coup after all:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Venezuelan_coup_d%27%C3%A...

eternalban8y ago

I don't read that rag anymore. Have they shed any tears for the children of Yemen?

Mikeb858y ago

Of course not. No one cares about Yemen because atrocities are being carried out by a US ally. It's plain to see when and where the media generates outrage.

1 more reply

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39 comments

seibelj8y ago

_bfhp8y ago

As Yemen Collapses, NYT Publishes Saudi Arabia Propaganda

pmarreck8y ago

I don't know why this is flagged, but I do see a lot of hot air about socialism in here without much pointing to evidence

JonasJSchreiber8y ago

That was so disheartening. Folks really need to jump off that sinking ship - emigrate - or Maduro needs to be ousted.

vhogemann8y ago

Already happening, thousands of Venezuelans are migrating to Brazil. Some towns near the borders are already having trouble to manage accommodating so many families.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/hungry-ven...

andrenth8y ago

“The Venezuelan government knows, but won’t admit it.”

The NY Times cheered for the socialist regime, but won’t admit it.

pmarreck8y ago

Evidence?

thriftwy8y ago

I used to think that economic collapse after the fall of Soviet communism was the worst outcome possible. Now it is apparent that crash with communism intact is much worse.

eugenerg8y ago

Quoting someone else: "NY Times major piece on starvation in Venezuela.

Carefully avoids mentioning socialism. All the problems are passive voice ("as the economy collapsed," "as hyperinflation appeared") or exogenous ("oil prices collapsed").

Walter Duranty lives."

nitwit0058y ago

It does, however, directly badmouth the Socialists.

toomuchtodo8y ago

It was government corruption, not socialism that led to the current crisis.

Socialistic Scandinavia countries that have sovereign wealth funds from their oil extraction prosper.

tomohawk8y ago

All systems have corruption. However, when the government nationalizes food distribution and production, that corruption has a much larger impact.

1 more reply

spraak8y ago

Genuinely curious and not trying to troll: how successful would Scandinavian socialism be without oil?

2 more replies

iyrkki_odyss8y ago

None of the scandinavian countries are socialistic.

X86BSD8y ago

That’s not quite accurate. They also have the US paying largely for their defense needs. That saves them a ton of money.

X86BSD8y ago

dang8y ago

Since we've asked you several times to stop posting ideological boilerplate and political battle to HN, and instead you do this, we've banned this account.

I suppose I should add that no, that's not because we're $ideological_flavor.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15947441 and marked it off-topic.

andrenth8y ago

How was that post ideological boilerplate? It’s a description of facts.

1 more reply

oculusthrift8y ago

ah yes. we all know sweden and switzerland and norway are about to collapse and have people die of starvation on the streets.

tomohawk8y ago

Since socialism is so successful, maybe they should nationalize food production and distribution too? It's gotta be better than using a capitalistic market economy for that, right?

holydude8y ago

madengr8y ago

Thanks to western democratic principles. You have conveniently ignored all their neighbors in the east block.

1 more reply

madengr8y ago

Yep, a track record of failure over the last 100 years.

X86BSD8y ago

Sweden has a national debt of 42% of its GDP. You’re free to call that healthy if you wish but that’s redlining to most of us.

And again they also have no defense costs except toys to play with because the US pays for their defense.

So yeah.

2 more replies

frabbit8y ago

The NYT crying crocodile tears over dying children is a bit hard to take.

Looks like the USA's determined to continue carrying out its coup after all:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Venezuelan_coup_d%27%C3%A...

eternalban8y ago

I don't read that rag anymore. Have they shed any tears for the children of Yemen?

Mikeb858y ago

Of course not. No one cares about Yemen because atrocities are being carried out by a US ally. It's plain to see when and where the media generates outrage.

1 more reply

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