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DarthVolod said:
Leadified said:

Between 1999 and 2011 the share of economy activity from the private sector rose from 65% to 71%. Also provided is an article from Fox News, which also talks about the private sector in the country and offers some more stats. Indeed the public sector was 30% of the GDP in Venezuela compared to 25% in Sweden.

Why Venezuela is in Crisis (The Nation)
What Socialism?... (Fox News)

I suggest you also read the articles in my reply to sc94597 to see how half baked Chavez's "socialism" was. Chavez was a socialist that ran a bloated social democracy that was bound to pop when a shock like 2014's oil crisis hit. He was still working within a capitalist framework and it doesn't matter what your personal ideology is because if you run a country just as poorly as Chavez then you're still going to crash the economy.

In fact, the last economic crisis in Venezuela happened in the mid 1990s while a neoliberal government was in power and it was caused by low oil prices and financial liberalization. Before that, Venezuela had another economic crisis in the 1980s, once again caused by an oil shock and neoliberal policies. Almost as if there's a common theme to all these crisis...

I think you realise this as well which is why you avoided answering my two questions in favour of making a point about the declining private sector in the country.

Oversimplification there. Yes, the country has had major economic problems and a economic cycle of sorts since the 1980's, but virtually everything has been tried to attempt to tinker with and "fix" the economy. That is the essence of the problem, chronic interference in the economy so far as I see it. 

Good article I found on the subject: https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/venezuela-1980s-1990s-and-beyond 

The essence of the problem is oil and it will always be a problem until Venezuela develops it's economy which will not happen without government intervention.

VAMatt said:
This is what happens when you look to government to take care of you.

History has proven time and time again that government is a net negative to human progress. I feel for the Venezuelan people. But, they put themselves in this spot. They should rise up and kick those commie scumbags to the curb. I think they will do so pretty soon.

And become another US puppet state until the false guise of "free market capitalism"? No thanks.