The politics and the system work- but, as Serial notes, state socialism is unsustainable in the current global climate of unfettered capitalism. Just as, in a world of successful socialist states, the single capitalist country would inevitably fail.

Calling socialism 'mumbo jumbo' is lazy and no real argument. Capitalism is a bunch of old hogwash. See? I can do it too!

My reading of the situation in Venezuela is this. Since the fall of the Berlin wall and the expansion of global capitalism in to virtually every corner of the globe, state Socialism has faced a two-fold problem in terms of maintaining itself. Either it attempts to fight against the tide, building nationalist movements like you saw in France in the 80s or Corbyn at the moment, which push for socialist policies within a framework of global capitalism. This almost inevitably leads to compromise and disappointment, especially if the grassroots movement that propel them fade away.

The other option is the Venezuelan model of becoming a pretty insular society, relying on funding via a high level export. You see it in Scandanavia to an extent as well. Problem is, once that export evaporates or demand goes down, you're pretty f*cked. I actually think in the past few decades Venezuela has done some brilliant things for its people, and been relatively democratic and open in the process. But ultimately without a concerted global move away from capitalism, it is hard to see a way of making it stick.

Your first paragraph is just empty nonsense Matt.

The link you posted, however, is fairly interesting. From what I've read, the political situation in Venezuela is certainly at breaking point, but what that article completely fails to identify is the other side of the story.

The other side of the story is that democracy is incredibly difficult to maintain in Venezuela because the opposition seem to have such a total disregard for it. The 2014 US Federal reserve gave million to opposition groups in Venezuela, while coups are commonplace. Even after Maduro was narrowly elected in 2013, there was an attempted coup, despite independent bodies suggesting it was a fair and transparent election. This isn't to suggest that Venezuela is some model for democratic socialism, but the lack of balance in that piece is questionable.

And when I talk about relatively, I'll give you a couple of examples. Look at the recent Turkish elections, in a country often cited as a beacon of thriving capitalism. The day before the election, the government closed down the major opposition news channel; added to that, Turkey has more journalists in jail than any other country in the world, and even an 11 year old child was threatened with legal action by the government after criticising Erdogan on facebook. Meanwhile, the June attacks on rival Kurdish party HQ have gone completely unpunished, the government reentered combat with the PKK days before the election, despite the latter stating their desire for peace until the elections were concluded. Police violence, particularly in Kurdish areas, on election day was rife, and Erdogan now hopes to push through a law to transfer power away from parliament and towards himself.

Or perhaps a better parallel to Venezuela would be Congo, a resource rich nation that has embraced Capitalism, and is now one of the fastest growing economies on the planet...even while over half of its people don't have access to clean drinking water.

Your first paragraph is just empty nonsense Matt.

The link you posted, however, is fairly interesting. From what I've read, the political situation in Venezuela is certainly at breaking point, but what that article completely fails to identify is the other side of the story.

The other side of the story is that democracy is incredibly difficult to maintain in Venezuela because the opposition seem to have such a total disregard for it. The 2014 US Federal reserve gave million to opposition groups in Venezuela, while coups are commonplace. Even after Maduro was narrowly elected in 2013, there was an attempted coup, despite independent bodies suggesting it was a fair and transparent election. This isn't to suggest that Venezuela is some model for democratic socialism, but the lack of balance in that piece is questionable.

And when I talk about relatively, I'll give you a couple of examples. Look at the recent Turkish elections, in a country often cited as a beacon of thriving capitalism. The day before the election, the government closed down the major opposition news channel; added to that, Turkey has more journalists in jail than any other country in the world, and even an 11 year old child was threatened with legal action by the government after criticising Erdogan on facebook. Meanwhile, the June attacks on rival Kurdish party HQ have gone completely unpunished, the government reentered combat with the PKK days before the election, despite the latter stating their desire for peace until the elections were concluded. Police violence, particularly in Kurdish areas, on election day was rife, and Erdogan now hopes to push through a law to transfer power away from parliament and towards himself.

Or perhaps a better parallel to Venezuela would be Congo, a resource rich nation that has embraced Capitalism, and is now one of the fastest growing economies on the planet...even while over half of its people don't have access to clean drinking water.