CYVIN

For those of you who follow American politics (as in North and South America, not just US) what do you think of Hugo Chavez?  He gets some horrible press, but I actually think he's great and his speeches are a riot.

Are Hugo Chavez speaches available on line?

My news is filtered through the economist magazine, which reports on him oftem enough but the economist seems to wish the oild price would go down so his economics would catch up with him.

I would like to think enableing the masses through basic education and medical care would be an economic as well as a social benefit. There are a few cooperatives but they do not seem wildly successful without ongoing state/oil support (again the economist talking).

The question that arises is basic education useful or is education elitist in that it is really for benefit through the few PhD and lecturers. I have a vocational degree and Masters, but it seems only work can make you free, i.e. would I have been better working, as I apply only basic concepts and techniques.

The argument is University was a good reward for study while at school, and learning new concepts there helps learning new concepts later, even though the University new concepts are not used.

My fault is I want to draw a line and learn everything fully that has been alluded to up to now, and not move forward and deal with new information, and circumstance, based on incomplete older information.

On to Hugo Chavez I am all for it as an experiment in what is possible, I will be joining a trade union next . As an experiment quashed see Allende 1974 Chile.

Just my 2 cent.
Turloch

The question that arises is basic education useful or is education elitist in that it is really for benefit through the few PhD and lecturers. I have a vocational degree and Masters, but it seems only work can make you free, i.e. would I have been better working, as I apply only basic concepts and techniques.

The argument is University was a good reward for study while at school, and learning new concepts there helps learning new concepts later, even though the University new concepts are not used.

Education shows committment to a cause, which employers like.  Also, if everyone was educated with only the basics, we would have a large society of trash collectors and the like, and the country would be almost completely dependant on importing it's technology, biotech and other science industries.

I believe the reason that the US is an economic super power is that it is a capitalist society.  For the most part, we don't try to go half way between capitalism and socialism.  Business is allowed to succeed or fail.  The US has very well refined markets.

The US makes it by size and having really dumb consumers who will spend until they live in cardboard boxes.  We are in the middle of an upheaval, though, because a giant part of our economic system revolved around automobiles, and that market is going through a structural change with foreign competition and rising energy prices.  20 years ago, the US had about 500,000 people employed (at pretty high wages) directly by auto manufacturers, and probably about another 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 people employed in supporting businesses - steel, suppliers, contractors, dealers, etc.  And, there were probably at least that many people on pensions.

Now, the steel companies are all gone, save two or three.  Suppliers are dropping like flies - Delphi is the latest and largest.  Retirees are seeing their pensions disappear as the companies that back them go bankrupt or negotiate sharp reductions.

The US is becoming much more service oriented.  Financial services is very big, natural resources is big, defense is bif, agriculture isn't so big and of course we have a very big commercial/retail industry. 

Venezuala is one of the countries that could do very well if their government started playing nicer with other countries.  Certainly, the US isn't a stellar example of this, but somehow we manage to get by.  Also, I think if Hugo got out of the way of his economy, it would likely take off on it's own.  They are a very oil rich nation, but I believe a lot of that is nationalized.  Oil could be the impetus that drives growth, but companies do not want to invest in a country where a government is likely to follow behind them and declare their investment a "public holding" now. 

I would say that the economic growth of Venezuala is a certainty.  The uncertainty is what rate the growth is.  A good way to play the growth in any country that is about to take off is to invest in the banking sector, then pull out and move into utilities as the growth progresses. 

Money isn't everything, it's true.  But, I've yet to find something it can't get...