Chavez gets sweeping new powers

Imagine a country where the top 10% of wage earners carry the poorest segment of their society on their backs. Where schools, welfare, insurance, roads, and the nation’s protection are paid for mostly by the top 10% in the form of hefty tax revenues. Oh wait – wasn’t supposed to talk about the United States in this blurb…

As for Venezuela… can we also vote into power someone who will take the company and the luxury home your family worked for over decades, and give it to me? Sounds strangely similar to North Korea in the beginning. My Korean wife’s family lost their homes and companies which were seized by the Communists from the North, and then what happened? They became one of the poorest countries on earth. How did that work out? And her family, starting from nothing again, built new companies and became wealthy again. Funny.

But seriously, 90% of Venezuelans who are poor are happy that Chavez will seize the assets of the rich and distribute to the poor. Government sanctioned thievery. Quick way to get a 90% approval rating. I’m wondering what kind of commission Chavez will keep for himself of the seized assets. 20% in a private offshore account? 30%? We’ll never know because that’s probably part of the new power grab – all books will be closed.

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