The Venezuelan people continue to struggle and suffer under the weight of severe socialist policies—facing increased poverty and hunger, swelling suicide rates, and widespread social unrest.
Yet even as its president admits to a nationwide economic emergency, the government continues to celebrate the very drivers behind the collapse, blaming low oil prices and “global capitalism,” instead.
Meanwhile, amid the turmoil and desperation, Venezuela’s local capitalism is beginning to emerge as a solution to the woes of socialism. According to Patricia Laya at Bloomberg, the country is seeing a renewed movement of ground-up creativity and experimentation geared toward rebuilding after the destruction of top-down control and mismanagement.
“Hyperinflation and scarcity have the Bolivarian revolution’s socialist heart pulsing with entrepreneurship,” writes Laya. “Desperate citizens are eking out a living with ventures such as digging home water wells, bartering bananas for haircuts and transporting commuters in animal-cargo trucks. The economy’s erosion has created markets and market players where none existed.”
Laya highlights several of the country’s burgeoning black-market entrepreneurs, many of whom repair or restore broken or used goods and resell them for a profit. Although the government hoped to snuff out independent industry, the effect is quite opposite. As economist Omar Zambrano explains in the article, “This Draconian effort to expand the state’s influence over any and every circle of life and business has created a black market for everything it touches.”
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