why did venezuela fail? they didn't have enough oil mostly, socialism not as much

here is an article that says the country was good when oil was plentiful and oil prices were up, and not so much when that wasn't the case. 

republicans like to point out that they gave everyone free college and healthcare, and then went bankrupt 

i think that misses the point. there are plenty of rich successful countries, like those in europe, who provide healthcare and eduation and they dont go belly up. these countries probably have agriculture or other sources of income, like the usa. 

i admit you can't give everyone everything when you don't have the means, but that's only when you don't have the means. flat out socialism i would surmise is bad, but just giving people food education and healthcare, isn't, or at least shouldn't, going to automatically bankrupt a nation. 

What happened is that their spending eclipsed their revenue. The country was a mixture of Socialism and capitalism, but the major source of revenue for the government came from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDVSA PDVSA which is a STATE RUN company.

Maduro ran the company into the ground with poor management, which historically happens when politicians attempt to become businessmen.

Politicians are typically only trained in the art of entertainment, and running a business requires logic, math, and a knowledge of economics, markets, and marketing in order to remain competitive. Maduro ruined PDVSA with terrible policies, over employing the state-controlled industry with poorly trained people in exchange for political favors. This priced the oil out of the market and revenue to the Venezuelan government plummetted. Venezuela was already in debt to pay for the freebie giveaways from previous years, trading national debt for political giveaways. In order to not default on their loans, Venezuela was forced to print money, leading to hyperinflation, which is essentially a huge tax on everyone with Bolivars. The Bolivar is now worth about 10% of its original value, which means people cannot afford the price of food. A 1 dollar bag of rice now costs ten Bolivars.

This is essentially what happened.

In fact, Venezuela is now forced to import oil, because the Venezuelan oil that is produced from the state-run policies is currently more expensive than imported oil from private free-market oil companies due to the fact that production has fallen way off and there is far less supply than demand.

I have had a Venezuelan roommate for over a year now. I find the subject fascinating as he tells me what is happening to his family in Caracas.

Instead of investing a portion of the oil profits into the capital required to run a petroleum business, Maduro and Chavez blew all the profits on political giveaways.

This is why you don't allow socialists to operate businesses, or allow friends to drink and drive.

Nope it's socialism,sorry

At this point, the only way Venezuela can dig themselves out of this mess is to lease some of their oil fields to private international investors, as there is nowhere Venezuela can get the money to reinvest the capital needed to rebuild their petroleum industry without creating even MORE hyperinflation.

Venezuela still owes China 23 Billion, and China won't lend anymore. You know you are fucked when China says no.

Yes

They have the largest oil reserves in the world

they have enough oil

But not enough credit to invest in the capital it requires to run a business. Socialists think shit grows on trees or just jumps out of the bottom of the ocean floor and into a barrel.