I have a feeling that Venezuela will get the crime problem under control, the techniques to do so, apart from the jackboot, are fairly well known and relatively easy to implement – it just takes the will.

Yes, I agree with your point about China, and about communism in general. The so-called ‘mixed market’ economy seems to have the greatest social productive potential. But it should be viewed only as a necessary evil, not the end goal. China still does not, in my view, direct their surplus values with suffcient zeal towards their working classes. As you probably know, there was a big battle in China during the last decade of Mao’s life, in which he fought against the ‘Capitalist Roaders’ like Deng. Mao’s cohort lost, after he died. It remains to be seen whether or not the Chinese system is ultimately capable of distributing surplus values to the masses – they still do not have social healthcare, or higher education so far as I know.

The major issue is, however, capitalism simply cannot persist. The global paradigm is driven by present commodity values determined by capitalistic relations. The technological capacity to alter the climate has now obtained, and is doing the damage. The future habitability of the planet – the basic resource flows necessary to sustain civilization itself like fresh water, productive agriculture, CO2 processing, and so on – has no present commodity value in this system, hence the ecological basis that makes civilization possible is being slowly destroyed. This is the major reason why I am what I am – a communist – some new paradigm is needed that values things the capitalist system is incapable of valuing, or we as a species will destroy ourselves.

Thanks for remaining civil ;)

From a systemic point of view, it’s just impossible, this is why China acts very much like a capitalistic country when it comes to trade and productivity.

Venezuela’s law and order issue is there by design, it sounds crazy, but it’s there by design. It’s caused the educated middle class population that wants to live a life with a decent future to have no option but to leave the country. Venezuela has become one of the hardest nations worldwide to do business. Unless you bow to the communist regime, there’s very little chance of succeding.

“Venezuela is among the most violent places of Latin America. Class tension has long been a part of life in the South American country, where armed robberies, carjackings and kidnappings are frequent. In 2009, the homicide rate was approximately 57 per 100,000, one of the world’s highest, having tripled in the previous decade.[1] The capital Caracas has the sixth greatest homicide rate of any large city in the world, with 98.7 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2011.[2]

Crime rates are higher in ‘barrios’ or ‘ranchos’ (slum areas) after dark. Petty crime such as pick-pocketing is prevalent, particularly on public transport in Caracas. The government in 2009 created a security force, the Bolivarian National Police, which hasn’t lowered crime rates in the areas in which it is so far deployed, and a new Experimental Security University.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Venezuela

I left over 10 years ago, and I follow the news there almost every week, as well as keep in touch with my family and the friends who haven’t left yet, and boy do I feel privileged to be able to be in a country where I can walk at night without fear of being kidnapped, mugged, or killed for something as simple as a phone.

“In 2011, the Secretary of State decided to impose sanctions on
Venezuela’s state oil company (PDVSA) for delivering at least three
cargoes of reformate, a blending component for gasoline, to Iran between
December 2010 and March 2011. The sanctions prohibit PDVSA from
competing for U.S. Government contracts, securing financing from the
Export-Import Bank of the United States, and obtaining export licenses.”

Individual states cannot form communist or socialist social relations in a globally linked economy. Similarly, capitalism in the US would utterly fail if the rest of the world was socialist and denied the US the privilege of trade. Much of the wealth in the US in the past, and especially today, was rent paid by the developing world.

Venezuela’s law and order problem is just that. It’s not the nature of communism, but attempting paradigms which are distinct from and threaten the world capitalist order. There is no question that the country’s police and military could restore order – but perhaps the restraint being shown is something positive.