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Last I heard, the people are waiting all day in line to get basic things like food and medication. Can someone explain how this country hasn’t collapsed yet? Cr

Last I heard, the people are waiting all day in line to get basic things like food and medication. Can someone explain how this country hasn’t collapsed yet? Crime must be through the roof.

venomsnake 10y ago
Check Zimbabwe - they li e like that 2 decades already.
guelo 10y ago
The country pretty much has collapsed. And yes, crime is through the roof.
ptaipale 10y ago
Crime is indeed very high - murder rate per capita is 15 times higher than in the U.S. or 70 times that of United Kingdom. It is so high that the government has stopped publishing statistics, and also so high that "authorities would assign judicial police to Caracas area morgues to speak with families. At that time, they would advise families not to speak to report the murder of their family member to the media in exchange to have the process of recovering the victims body in an expedited manner. It was also reported that police would intercept the families of the victims and take them to the library of the University Institute of the Scientific Police (IUPOLC) where authorities offered families ways to "streamline procedures and advise them not to give information to the press in return for their aid"* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Venezuela https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Venezuela The government also banned private handgun ownership in 2012. The number of murders has grown by about a third since that.
- kazinator 10y ago
  What? UK to US is 70:15?! How savage.
  - erikpukinskis 10y ago
    The U.S. is essential a colony and a colonizing nation in one unified land area. The U.K. maintained political separation with its colonies. If you include the British colonies in the statistics, it looks more like the U.S.
    - dash2 10y ago
      I think this comment wins a prize for "most creative way to explain away the massive difference in murder rates between the US and most other developed countries".
      - adventured 10y ago
        Or you could look at the murder rate by state, that's fascinating as well given the dramatic difference you see between them. Vermont, New Hampshire, Iowa, Idaho, North Dakota, Wyoming (about 8 million people between them) all have murder rates lower than Canada, Belgium and Finland. Maine, Minnesota, South Dakota, Hawaii, Utah, Oregon, Montana, Washington all have relatively low murder rates. I'd love to hear your explanation for what causes the wide variance between some states on murder rate.
        StavrosK 10y ago
        Is this stable? I'd expect some states to have low rates and some to have high rates by chance alone.
        adventured 10y ago
        It's highly stable and has been quite consistent for decades of data. Those low murder states in particular have been extremely stable when it comes to being in the low bracket. Louisiana for example has had a high murder rate for a long time (as has eg Chicago) and states like Idaho, New Hampshire, Maine, Washington etc have had low murder rates for as long as the US has had meaningful data on murder. I'd argue the opposite, chance plays zero role when it comes to the wide variance in murder rates among states.
lb1lf 10y ago
-As for crime, Venezuela has the 3rd highest (reported) murder rate in the world. (at 62/100,000 in 2014.)
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
rasz_pl 10y ago
East Soviet Bloc suffered >20 years of exact same situation before collapsing. Yes, people did stand in 6 hour queues for basic things like _bread_ in Poland under Russian occupation. This is a "bread queue" image search if you are interested: https://www.google.com/search?q=kolejka+po+chleb&source=lnms&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=kolejka+po+chleb&source=lnms...
- jakozaur 10y ago
  Though in central/eastern soviet Europe it was regulated rationing with low crime ratio. So dire situation, but somewhat under control, while Venezuela looks like chaos. Soviet Block deal with it by providing paper coupons for food and necessities. Without them you can't buy a lot of stuff.
  - kbart 10y ago
    What war was USSR in during eighties? Yes, they were invading Afghanistan, but it didn't have much effect on domestics (much like recent Iraq war for USA). It was already a failed state then and everyone knew it. Disclaimer: I was born in USSR and these "bread" (actually pretty much everything) queues are among my earliest memories.

Last I heard, the people are waiting all day in line to get basic things like food and medication. Can someone explain how this country hasn’t collapsed yet? Crime must be through the roof.

venomsnake 10y ago

Check Zimbabwe - they li e like that 2 decades already.

guelo 10y ago

The country pretty much has collapsed. And yes, crime is through the roof.

ptaipale 10y ago

Crime is indeed very high - murder rate per capita is 15 times higher than in the U.S. or 70 times that of United Kingdom. It is so high that the government has stopped publishing statistics, and also so high that "authorities would assign judicial police to Caracas area morgues to speak with families. At that time, they would advise families not to speak to report the murder of their family member to the media in exchange to have the process of recovering the victims body in an expedited manner. It was also reported that police would intercept the families of the victims and take them to the library of the University Institute of the Scientific Police (IUPOLC) where authorities offered families ways to "streamline procedures and advise them not to give information to the press in return for their aid"* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Venezuela https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Venezuela The government also banned private handgun ownership in 2012. The number of murders has grown by about a third since that.

kazinator 10y ago
What? UK to US is 70:15?! How savage.
- erikpukinskis 10y ago
  The U.S. is essential a colony and a colonizing nation in one unified land area. The U.K. maintained political separation with its colonies. If you include the British colonies in the statistics, it looks more like the U.S.
  - dash2 10y ago
    I think this comment wins a prize for "most creative way to explain away the massive difference in murder rates between the US and most other developed countries".
    - adventured 10y ago
      Or you could look at the murder rate by state, that's fascinating as well given the dramatic difference you see between them. Vermont, New Hampshire, Iowa, Idaho, North Dakota, Wyoming (about 8 million people between them) all have murder rates lower than Canada, Belgium and Finland. Maine, Minnesota, South Dakota, Hawaii, Utah, Oregon, Montana, Washington all have relatively low murder rates. I'd love to hear your explanation for what causes the wide variance between some states on murder rate.
      - StavrosK 10y ago
        Is this stable? I'd expect some states to have low rates and some to have high rates by chance alone.
        adventured 10y ago
        It's highly stable and has been quite consistent for decades of data. Those low murder states in particular have been extremely stable when it comes to being in the low bracket. Louisiana for example has had a high murder rate for a long time (as has eg Chicago) and states like Idaho, New Hampshire, Maine, Washington etc have had low murder rates for as long as the US has had meaningful data on murder. I'd argue the opposite, chance plays zero role when it comes to the wide variance in murder rates among states.

lb1lf 10y ago

-As for crime, Venezuela has the 3rd highest (reported) murder rate in the world. (at 62/100,000 in 2014.)

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

rasz_pl 10y ago

East Soviet Bloc suffered >20 years of exact same situation before collapsing. Yes, people did stand in 6 hour queues for basic things like _bread_ in Poland under Russian occupation. This is a "bread queue" image search if you are interested: https://www.google.com/search?q=kolejka+po+chleb&source=lnms&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=kolejka+po+chleb&source=lnms...

jakozaur 10y ago
Though in central/eastern soviet Europe it was regulated rationing with low crime ratio. So dire situation, but somewhat under control, while Venezuela looks like chaos. Soviet Block deal with it by providing paper coupons for food and necessities. Without them you can't buy a lot of stuff.
- kbart 10y ago
  What war was USSR in during eighties? Yes, they were invading Afghanistan, but it didn't have much effect on domestics (much like recent Iraq war for USA). It was already a failed state then and everyone knew it. Disclaimer: I was born in USSR and these "bread" (actually pretty much everything) queues are among my earliest memories.