Probably not safe to flush though.
Venezuelan plumbing is not very great so typically people try to avoid flushing toilet paper (really). So using bills wouldn’t take much of an adjustment.
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I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if people are in fact doing that. I’d personally have an issue using currency for that purpose which has been out in circulation.
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I also would not want to wipe my ass with currency… unless it was a moral/political statement and not a regular occurrence.
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Been there, done that. Do not recommend.
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I get what you’re saying, but we have that right now. The vast majority of people in power are actually college educated in one of those fields. Having a degree does not insulate you from making foolish or ideologically driven choices. And plenty of working class people have plenty of practical life experience to know what people in society might actually need from the government, having lived a working class life.
The balance is having someone in power who is smart and humble enough to understand their limitations and actual put people with working knowledge of various areas of government to do an effective job. Except in cases like top-down dictatorships, the actual governance happens in the various governmental departments anyway. With the right balance of powers, and insulation for parts of government that should be shielded from politics, you can get a proper balance between expertise and populist driven policies.
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Admirers of the Chinese government like to point out how many Chinese leaders studied sciience or engineering at university.
Critics of the Chinese government retort that those leaders spent most of their time at university getting involved with Party youth organisations and getting a head start climbing up the greasy pole instead of studying.
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so the new currency is tied to a commodity backed crypto-currency…
And we are in some very weird times when the socialist bogeyman is doing reforms that sound like a Ron Paul wet dream (i.e. no way in hell this works… right?)
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Yeah, when dealing with human problems someone with a humanities degree might be a better fit.
So just like JD programs at Harvard and Yale? Some ambitious young people yearing for political power and climbing to the top of a hierarchy. It’s a terrible way to run a country, but it’s not unique to China.
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British universities have debating societies where aspiring politicians can learn to argue for or against any position on any issue.
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But if money continuously flows to the top, and no new money is printed, then the people at the bottom will be cash starved and revolt.
That’s common in American universities as well. This should not be a surprised as the education institutions in the US and UK are closely related in their origins. (the later was a model for the former)
*US-Venezuela relations looks like a crowd kicking a man to the ground, breaking his legs, and then mocking him for not being able to get up. The amount of Venezuelan propaganda consumed by the US in particular, and the certainty that it fills people with, is very disturbing. Seeing people on Boing Boing get into classist bullshit about bus drivers not being smart enough for politics(!) and economics(!) is more disturbing than watching right wing fundamentalists foaming at the mouth. In the UK, we HAVE a class system and our expensively educated upper class rules, yet we have economically irrational austerity completely fucking the economy, a third of our children live in poverty (with working parents), and everything is literally falling to shit while debt and the deficit grow. Not only that, our economy is dominated by financial services to the same extent that others are dependent on oil. (Fortunately the UK doesn’t have to sell financial services in US dollars 
)
Most of the problems in Venezuela existed, and were often worse when it was run by the rich white people who currently own the media and much of the economy: crazy inflation, crime, over-dependence on oil, etc. When Corbyn becomes PM in the UK and the UK establishment uses economic sabotage, MSM propaganda, coups and terrorism to try to bring him down, please spare a thought for historical context, and don’t try to overthow our grass roots movement to RE-impose rule by the 1% at the historical moment we win. It’s really discouraging. Let countries work shit out for themselves
The UN’s special rapporteur described Venezuela’s economy as “capitalism with a humane face.” https://venezuelanalysis.com/ANALYSIS/13614
To me that sounds like Canada. What we have in UK is capitalism with a Testino shoe stamping on a human face
*I should say, US/Canada/UK/EU-Veneuzela relations
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There used to be a category of people called “statesmen”, who were people believed to understand the issues, have experience in working within government, and served for the good of the nation and it’s people.
Possibly a mythical creature, but we could use some of them.
As for scientific background, I would prefer at least a strong understanding of scientific method, and a person humble enough to listen to the views of actual experts.
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That’s… not how money works. Also, the only 1%ers who keep their money in cash are idiots, Scrooge McDuck, and movie villains.
I did not know that was a thing. I can see people admiring the Chinese people, culture, arts, or history. But their government is fairly repressive. They do a lot of this sort of thing:
good advice… someone like the actual US president?
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There were no typical archetypical White rich people in charge in Venezuela… those who were in charge then are not the Owners of the Media now, that’s simply not true… The Government before Chavez was share by two Parties both Liberal and left-leaning and both were part of The International Socialist League (IS) since their inception. Acccion Democratica And the Partido Social Cristiano “COPEI”. In fact, almost all of the current Opposition parties in Venezuela and almost all of the main ones are members of the IS. and/or Leftist.
Yes there was corruption, crime, and a general rejection of a diversified economy, but nothing compared to the actual situation… many Venezuelans remember that time like “the one were we happy but didn’t know it”
And on the media, an example; “Tal Cual” one of the most fearless newspapers in the country was founded and edited by an Honorary Member of the IS, long time leftist, a founding member of the main Socialist party in the country “MAS” (Movimiento Al Socialismo) and former Guerrilla fighter; Teodoro Petkoff. Another example is Globovision A news channel brought close to bankruptcy by the Chavista government for reporting the news with an opposing point of view, was finally sold to a complicit 3rd party several years ago, their former owners and staff flee the country and start over in Florida (were almost 300k Venezuelan lives) Their web portal and online news service is the main source for most Venezuelans news and its regularly block by the government. Or like RCTV (Radio Caracas Television) a few years before that saw; after 50 years it’s license expire and then negated by the Chavista government. Right now the remains of the independent media in Venezuela is in the hands of a few groups and families that still believe in free speech and free press, None of them were in any position of power before the Chavistas took over, right now they are carefully keeping their news on the verge of what is real and what is not to keep the censorship of the regime at bay.
The Government in the other hand has close to the 90% of the media under its control and or payroll making it a propaganda machine that keeps the public and several others abroad misinformed and blind to real struggles of the life in Venezuela.
In the other hand, there was never an Inflation rate close to the actual, and the crime in the last 20 years (the Chavez year’s) is historically the worst since the war for independence.
On the Classist comments upon the current leader of the regime in Venezuela; He was a bus driver and a union rep (not a leader) he is famous for not working and being fake-sick all the time, he was called by the Communist faction of the union to beat people up (he is almost 1.9m and way over 100Kg) has been described by several close acquaintances as: “Not bright” and “a bit slow” but he is what we call in Venezuela a “Malandro” or a thug… He is the perfect guy to be in charge of a government that functions more like a cartel, He is the face of a rule by a committee, were thugs are keeping their turfs and benefits no matter what.
So, I get that Venezuela is the current poster boy for the ills of Socialism and all the liberals and leftist in the world are picking the news with tweezers, telling everybody that we are just a victim of the Bad US and their policies forced upon us like in the 60’s… 70’s… and well crap the 80’s too. But telling that is not helping us here, we are been oppressed by a neo-fascist regime, a weird mix of nationalistic fanatics and Cuban socialism (Communism) they are unmasked criminals that will not give up power for the fear of prosecution. They don’t deserve to be called Socialist, Capitalist or even Bolivarian. They are con artists, criminals, thieves, narcos… well I assume you got the point.
PS: That link (venezuelanalysis) is the most stinking pile of bull crap I have seen in a while. A vile place full of pro chavismo propaganda, part of the media empire the Regime owns and or finance. Keep away from it.
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