Venezuela Solicits Bids From Big Oil Companies
In the faulty reasoning of marxists, the "workers" should own all industry, because without their labor, industry cannot produce a product. A benevolent socialist government should usurp ownership of the company and rightfully award it to the workers. All workers are then paid the same wages, run the company as a "democracy", and the state takes the lion's share of the industry profits in taxes to support benefits to workers and non-workers alike. All under the flawed premise that its for the good of the people, of course.
While disregarding or "re-interpreting" capitalist laws that protect property rights may allow for a marxist state to seize an industry, it overlooks that workers are, more often than not, innept at actually creating and running a business. "Workers" lack the experience, financial resources, and expertize that are only available in a capitalist system where the profit incentive inspires indiviuals to become successful entrepreneurs. Because socialism cannot create new industry, it must steal it, (nationalize, expropriate, seize, free from capitalist oppressors, or whatever phrase best describes usurpation) from an existing capitalist enterprise. Strangely enough, entrepreneurs the state can steal from are scarce in a marxist society. Go figure. Why would the individual assume all the risks of establishing a business, only to have the state take it over once the business succeeds? After the stolen pie has been cut, and redistributed according to the socialist's priorities, there isn't another pie in the pipeline to steal. The good times will last only as long as the ill-gotten gains do, because there is no incentive to create another "pie". Victims of socialism's avarice learn quickly the old adage: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
So what happens if the stolen pie... shrinks?
Venezuela's oil industry has been declining for decades under the incompetent ownership by the "workers". The current slump in oil prices has further shrunk the Venezuelan oil-production pie, prompting Hugo Chavez to look for more tax revenues from expanded oil exploration. Seems the stability of his government, and thus his political power, hinge on the continuation of social spending. Without more oil profits to tax, there just isn't enough money to support the welfare state. He believes that exploiting more oil resources would bring in more profits to tax, even at reduced prices. We won't argue his lack of business sense concerning the laws of supply and demand, and the effect on oil prices of increasing the supply. I'm sure that OPEC could explain it to him, but his problem is bigger than that. Chavez is realizing that there is an inexplicable shortage of same-wage native oil engineers to expand the industry. In fact, if it weren't for the management of Chevron, their existing oil capacity might have collapsed altogether.
Venezuela has vast oil resources, but is incapable of building or maintaining the infrastructure to make use of them. Other socialist countries are in the same financial boat and have little interest in Hugo's problems. Since socialism has proved ill-equipped to sustain or enlarge the industry, the only answer is to find capitalists gullible enough to expand the industry for him. Now Chavez wants to solicit help from the very American oil companies he rose to power by demonizing.
Hugo must think oil companies have a short memory. The policy of nationalizing the Venezuelan oil industry has had a ruinous result: foreign oil companies are not eagerly lining up to drill new wells, or build new refineries in Venezuela. He already fooled them once; they won't let him fool them again. The problem he faces is best summed up by a line near the bottom of the story.
"But first, Chavez may have to find ways of reassuring them that he won't seize their investments again."
Venezuela is about to learn a harsh lesson. That lesson is that marxism halts the growth of industry at whatever stage it is converted from a capitalist enterprise to a socialist one, and government seizure of an industry makes for an unattractive investment environment to future capitalists.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,480096,00.html
What a difference 100 years can make.
We just said goodbye to 2008. Let's look back to 1908 and see what a 100 years can do...
* The average life expectancy was 47 years.
* Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
* Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
* There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.
* The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
* The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
* The average wage in 1908 was 22 cents per hour
* The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year
* A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
* More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME.
* Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard.'
* Sugar cost four cents a pound.
* Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
* Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
* Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
* Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.
Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
* The American flag had 45 stars.
* The population of Las Vegas , Nevada, was only 30!!!!
* Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.
* There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
* Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write.
* Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
* Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind,regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.'
* Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.
* There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE ! U.S.A. !
http://ronnisrants.blogspot.com/2009/01/big-differe
nce.html#links
Socialised health care at it's best... I can hardly wait.
Medics Caught on Tape Allegedly Decided Disabled Man Not Worth Saving
"Two EMT workers in Britain were arrested after they were heard allegedly discussing whether they should bother to resuscitate a disabled man who had collapsed at home and subsequently died."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,474454,00.html>
"Iraq Official Says Country Still Needs U.S. Military Presence
Saturday, November 08, 2008
AP
Nov. 6: An Iraqi child gestures as he talks with a U.S. soldier during a routine patrol in Dora , southern Baghdad, Iraq.
BAGHDAD — Iraq's deputy prime minister said Saturday his country still needs the U.S. military to ensure security and warned that time is running out to approve a new security deal with Washington"
If we withdraw, there's going to be a lot of empty chairs around the table in Iraq. That's change you can believe in. Remember why we didn't run out on them after we won.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,449112,00.html
