Productive city brought down by Chavez socialism

The Sidor steel mill in Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela, once produced 4.3 million tons of steel per year. Now only 700,000 T. The 4.3 M was before late-President Hugo Chavez nationalized it. Under state ownership political appointees were favored over experienced managers and investment in the plant. And Chavez's leadership of the economy resulted in chaos throughout. That disrupted supplies and electricity. Furthermore 2,000 workers are paid for full-time union work.

Ciudad was founded in 1961 to be a center of industry to take advantage of abundant cheap hydro-electric power and was successful until Chavez politicized it. And the whole economy!

This is just one example of the mess in Venezuela. It has had huge income from oil for a long time and still has huge reserves. But its socialism puts politics into every decision and the result is waste, inflation and poverty.

Wash Post