With oil prices going through the roof, the middle class in oil-rich Venezuela have a dilemma: Should they enjoy the fruits of capitalism, or follow the lead of Hugo Chavez and embrace the austerity of hard-line socialism?
Thankfully, Venezuelan Interior Minister Pedro Carreño is making the decision oh-so-easy. During a press gaggle on Wednesday, a reporter asked Carreño if it wasn’t a bit contradictory to insist capitalism sucks while wearing Gucci shoes and a Louis Vuitton tie.
Carreño’s stammering is priceless even if you don’t understand Spanish, but a rough translation is below.
Carreño: The only way to justice is socialism, it is not capitalism, it is not capitalism … to the state…
Reporter: Yes sir, but it’s a contradiction to talk about capitalism when you are wearing a Louis Vuitton tie and Gucci shoes…
Carreño: I don’t — uh — I — Of course, it’s not contradictory because I wish Venezuela produced all of this, and then I would buy everything made here, and not have to import 95 percent of the things that we consume.
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Typical of communists. They preach against capitalism but love to drinck coke, drive in a Mercedes and travel in style…They are all corrupt…Like those Hollywood f—ing clebrities…Preaching they “care” about the poor, while living in gigantic mansions and have a dozen maids.
what a douche!!!! same dogs, different collar…
Communism is about the wealth of the people, communist’s arn’t suppose to be poor. simply by wearing the tie and those shoes is a sign that his communism is working perfectly. I fail to see how you come to the conclusion that he is corrupt simply becuase he is wealthy. it says in the article that all the middle class are wealthy, meaning that his communist system is working perfectly.
Very funny … For those of you under 50, Lev Davidovich Bronstein is the given name of Leon Trotsky. Weren’t you assasinated by your communist overlords (with an ice pick to the head) back in the 1940s?
And besides, all that state-controlled oil wouldn’t have anything to do with the rise of the Venezuelan middle class, now, would it?
What is “hard-line socialism”? What are talking about? The whole idea is to *distribute the wealth* of Venezuela’s resources. How, precisely, is any of this therefore hypocritical?
His reaction alone is enough to see that he doesn’t believe in communism. The middle class in Venezuela isn’t wealthy. The middle class is still middle class, the upper class is still rich, and the lower class is still dirt poor. Communism doesn’t work.
Also, in the translation, that second “capitalism” he says, he actually said “cannibalism”.
as long as we depend on international capitalistic concepts such as the oil-price, selling to the highest bidder, which is in a logical conclusion the most exploitent states such as the USA and the EU (and China furthermore) we can never emancipate our socialist solidarity from these states as we most depend on their goodwill to pay us the highest price.
By pure Logic you can tell us that this is leading us nowhere but into higher dependancy on the states which we, in common sense would assume to be the mother of so much socio-economic suffering in our part of the globe.
Isn’t there a more noble and better way to get around?