The Gossip Kids Are Not Up To Understanding Venezuela

Or socialism. Or common sense.  Venezuela's problem was not socialism, it was the corrupt racist oligarchy which ruled the country before Chavez, destroying the society for all but the most wealthy and connected.  Chavez was a wonderful, radical leader who began to transform the nation, but when the oil money could no longer support the economy, the entire system collapsed.  That was exactly the opposite of socialism.  Had Venezuela had a century to construct the infrastructure of a modern society, then the 21st century would have been a wonderful age, as it is in Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland, but Chavez was not able to do the work of a century in less than a decade.  The gossip kids should really shut the fuck and stick to sports gossip.