Venezuela's Chavez Signs Cheap Oil Deal with Massachusetts

[DinoDoc]

Is this the first time you've seen him post?

[The Mad Viking]

All the supporters of capitalism say that it benefits everyone.

Profits are a good thing because it means the corporation is operating effectively, providing goods or services that people need or want in an efficient manner.

And profits mean taxes, so that is good too.

This is the win-win aspect of capitalism, and I agree with all of this. (Who wouldn't?)

However, sometime profits happen not because a company is smart or efficient.

Sometimes random factors arise that cause prices to go through the roof.

Now in capitalist theory, this should be related only to cost of production and to real supply-demand situations. But in reality, speculation about future changes is what drives prices in today's world.

So a random factor arises that causes suffering for a lot of people, and at the same time provides record profits to a corporation (by their own admission, in the case of the oil companies, due to no action on their parts!)

This is a win-lose scenario. This is not how the capitalist system benefits the people, and the benefit to the people is the reason we use the capitalist system.

(Which is why we don't permit corporations to sell crack, even though the profit potential to the shareholders is certainly there...)

Government action is supposed to smooth out the invetible harsh spikes of capitalism where if fails in its mandate to benefit the people.

The oil price situation this year is one such spike.

[RGBVideo]

Oh, by the way, speaking of hurricanes, apparently there is a large group of Indians living in the Bajou and have been completley forgotten by FEMA, but hey, we been screwing the red man for hundreds of years why stop now.

6.6/10

I don't follow Venezuelan politics, so I can't really comment on how he is running his country. However, all things being equal, I'd rather see Chavez in power than a right-wing leader. At least with Chavez I think he is genuinely interested in improving the lives of his people. Honestly, I don't think he will be able to improve things for Venezuela that much. But that is because Venezuela is a poor country. Period. No leader will change that, left-wing, right-wing, etc...

I don't understand why dumbass rightwingers hate Chavez so much. He's the President of Venezuela. It's not like this is an important country we are talking about.

It is just amusing to watch the righties' heads spin when Chavez does something.

All valid points, but my post wasn't really directed towards you. It's sad to see what kind of a person is a nice kid like Odin slowly changing into.