That's a heavy question, indeed. I'm no economics buff, keep that in mind, but I'll try to sketch what I think should be done. I'd say that the main problem is

That's a heavy question, indeed. I'm no economics buff, keep that in mind, but I'll try to sketch what I think should be done. I'd say that the main problem is the multi-tiered foreign exchange system we have in place. There's an "official, protected, preferential" rate of 10 Bolívares per dollar, the SIMADI rate (674,34) and the parallel/black market rate (approximately at 2500 Bolívares this december right now). This system is what essentially makes our economy a mess. So called revolutionaries are just new burgueoisie wearing red shirts who import goods we no longer produce (food, medicine, industrial supplies, etc) with the cheap dollar and sell them as if they had used the black market rate (bemoaning "capitalism" as they do). The private sector is barred from the protected-cheap rate and has an extremely obscure access to the middle system (SIMADI), and that's if they're friendly with the government. Individual citizens can only use the black market rate, which is illegal. Solving this problem is conceptually easy: The foreign exchange should be unified, there should be only one rate for everyone to exchange Bolívares for foreign currencies. The public sector, the private sector and individual citizens should pay the same to get foreign currency. This looks evident, but there are many interests and people in power who benefit from the current system's corruption, stunting production, foreign investment and general trust in our currency. Besides the foreign exchange rate there are a lot of subsidies in place that should be partially removed, progressively. Gasoline here is still dirt cheap (world's cheapest oil and that), sold below production cost. We still send oil to Cuba at a price below market rate out of "national friendship", even when our oil production is decreasing and some people scour thrash cans for food to eat. To say we get no economic benefit from giving away oil out of "national friendship" is putting it mildly. Given that we're primarily an oil exporting country, removing gas subsidies (progressively) and eliminating foreign gifts would alleviate some stress. Cooking gas, electricity and internet access are also subsidized. This is hard for me to say, but the price should also go up there. These public services have sporadic failures out of lack of investment, bad maintenance and lack of supplies to make repairs. It rains, the lights and the internet might go out, for example. If the situation remains as it is the public service infrastructure might go beyond obsolete and underfunded to outright useless due to lack of maintenance, which would be even worse. Also, the government should stop intervening media and demonizing the private sector to blame it from the policies the revolution has implemented. This demonizing scares foreign investment, decreases production and, frankly, makes our people more stupid, which overall decreases our ability to make informed choices at everything. This is highly unlikely today, though. They want the people to be angry, looting local grocery stores and blaming "capitalists" for the scarcity of goods instead of the government that implements the policies that cause the scarcity itself. There's more stuff, but that's the main course to begin changing things, I think.