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4 Reasons Why the Venezuelan Economy Collapsed
From the richest country in South America to economic collapse. How did it happen? Was it socialism or was it corruption and mismanagement? Are there lessons to be learned from what happened in Venezuela?
Venezuela’s Economic Outlook
The news and pictures that have streamed out of Venezuela in the last several years have both been scary and ominous. They speak about the once bright star in the Latin American economic firmament, now a country which has imploded politically, economically, and socially.
In the 1970s, Venezuela was the richest of all the countries in South America. Today, the economy is but a fraction of what it once was.
Due to its oil wealth, the Venezuelan workers of the decades between the 1960s and 1970s enjoyed the highest wages in Latin America. The government spent generously on healthcare, education, transport and food subsidies for the poor. Literacy and life expectancy were on the rise, and the upper middle class was known for buying investment and vacation condominiums in Miami.
Today, the per capita GDP stands at $5,178, while merely seven years ago in 2015, it was at $17,300. This…
