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RE: Venezuela: The Paradox of Plenty.
Hello. It is good to hear a Venezuela citizen's view of their country. We don't hear much about your country besides USA saying it is bad.
I would like to know more out of curiosity how a country so rich in oil can now have hyperinflation and every service failing.
Why cannot the country grow it's own food is my first obvious question?
Thanks for the comment!
Well, the reason is the government has control over most of the production here. It's difficult to do something without their approval. They usually just allow people to get their contracts if they are somehow related to them. Secondly, if you managed yourself to grow somethng, you'll have to sell that to the price they tell you. The thing is that there is hyperinflation, so it has happened many times before that people get loses when selling their products for the raw materials get more expensive each time.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I'll probably keep on posting more about my country in the future.
Oh really there is that much control? I understand the hyperinflation making it more expensive.
Could a small group of people or community get together and help each other grow food for each other or is this a crazy question?
Today I also found out, after I read your post, how PDVSA now has to pay $2 billion compensation to ConocoPhillips for nationalising two oil fields they some how have claim too. There is corruption all around, More bad news for your country unfortunately.
Yes, there is indeed that much control over prices.
I guess growing some crops around by the community could be done. However the following problems have and will come up:
-To do so everything that is grown should be consumed by those who work on it and not sold. But if that were the case, that is not helping much but only those growing the food. The rest of us who are involved in other sectors would have to stop doing what we do and just dedicate to agriculture. That's just not something possible in the 21st century.
-Supplies such as pesticides or fertilizers are not being produced in here, and must therefore be imported. The problem being you would need to get dollars to do so and there just aren't many of those around any more, unless you buy them on the black market. So micro economic agriculture is not the answer here.
The only way to improve the situation here is by promoting international investment by great proportions. Food can be found in here, just that prices are too high and companies can't afford to pay much money to their employees now. But if other companies invest money here (there are lots of reasons to do so), they could afford higher wages. The problem is that no one will ever invest a peny in here when you know there is a government that nationalizes your company when they don't like something you do. Put simply, the government must be removed first.