To be clear I wasn't stating that the situation in China is equivalent in any way to that of Venezuela, I just felt it was a bit strange to root the current woe

To be clear I wasn't stating that the situation in China is equivalent in any way to that of Venezuela, I just felt it was a bit strange to root the current woes of Venezuela solely on lack of free market basically. It probably doesn't help but what killed Venezuela in the end is their complete reliance on oil money and complete lack of plan B when it crashed. I'm pretty certain that if the right had been in charge when the crisis happened things would've played out mostly the same (I don't believe for a second that the right would have better diversified the economy for the same reason that the socialists didn't, nobody says no to free money), the main difference being that they would have cut all the benefits to the poor immediately to cushion the fall a bit and they'd have let papa USA bail them out in exchange for a de-facto feudalization of their economy. I agree that it would probably have turned better for the Venezuelan people (at least in the short term) but socialism vs. capitalism is not really the cause of the crash, it's more about the recovery or lack thereof. If the petrol infusion had kept going I'm sure people would be chanting Dear Leader's name in the streets, whoever that would be.