Pretty much the same thing happened in the 80s when there was a precipitous drop in the price of oil. The anger fomented by that is exactly what got Chavez and

Pretty much the same thing happened in the 80s when there was a precipitous drop in the price of oil. The anger fomented by that is exactly what got Chavez and his socialist platform elected. Now, of course, it's "all socialism's fault", just as last time it was "all capitalism's fault". People have short memories. So no, it wasn't socialism that's causing Venezuela to fall apart any more than it's going to be socialism that will Saudi Arabia to tear itself apart in the next few years (they've have more cash on hand right now but they are hurtling towards exactly the same place). It's Dutch Disease and the resource curse. >Longer still: They allowed the state to control the oil revenues entirely, and because they wanted to enrich themselves, they promised unsustainable entitlements to the public which eventually fell through when the oil price dropped slightly. Because they didn't give a damn, the private sector was not involved to invest any portion of the revenues, and the government couldn't possibly care less to invest them. Yes, their real mistake was building some houses and hospitals with the oil revenue instead of letting it get siphoned off into swiss bank accounts as was happening before /s The "private sector" (powerful Venezuelan business interests) essentially plotted its own demise when it launched the 2003 coup. That was unfortunate, as was Chavez's response to crush them, but it was to a large extent, self inflicted.