Redistribution profiteers who committed economic crimes against humanity sequestered Venezuela

Sir, I refer to Ricardo Hausmann’s sadly true “It could be too late to avoid catastrophe in Venezuela” February 4.

These days when so much is said about fighting inequality, Venezuela is a tragic example of what happens when a country falls into the hands of shameless redistribution profiteers. All countries need to develop more transparent government accounts that allows us them to measure the real costs of redistributing wealth.

For instance in the case of Venezuela the fact that the prices of petrol (gas) have not increased once since Chavez came to power 17 years ago has signified that just in free petrol the country has over the last years given away more than in all their other social programs put together… if that is not an economic crime against humanity (and environment) what is. I have tried to denounce it to the Organization of American States but they are more interested in conventional and traditional crimes against humanities.

Over the last 15 years the poor of Venezuela might not have received even 10 percent of the oil wealth that was redistributed… which would indicate a redistribution commission of 90 percent.

Clearly if other methods like direct oil revenue sharing with citizens had been used, the 10-90% figures here could have been 98-2%. And of course, had the oil revenues belonged to the citizens, the government could not have “used it to quadruple the foreign debt.”

Set into this context it is obvious that all should closely study experiments like Finland’s substituting with a basic monthly income for all the bureaucrats’ management of benefits.

PS. One of the most sad events in my lifetime has been when the US did not follow through on the idea of promoting oil revenue sharing in Iraq. Had it done so the whole middle east, and of course Venezuela, if following the example, could have been facing much better realities.

@PerKurowski ©

Former Executive Director at the World Bank, for Venezuela, 2002-04

Sometimes good bumper stickers are the best way to begin paving the road to a better world.

Sir, Philip Stephens writes: “the US lacks the resources and political will for ‘generational’ projects to transform the Middle East” “Republicans want a bumper sticker world” April 24.

The US Congress Iraq Study Group Report of May 2006 stated: “There are proposals to redistribute a portion of oil revenues directly to the population on a per capita basis. These proposals have the potential to give all Iraqi citizens a stake in the nation’s chief natural resource"

If that idea would have been implemented, you can bet the Middle East would have seen much good transformation… and not only there, other places, like Venezuela, would have benefitted immensely from such example.

Unfortunately the same Report then wrote: “Oil revenues have been incorporated into state budget projections for the next several years. There is no institution in Iraq at present that could properly implement such a distribution system. It would take substantial time to establish, and would have to be based on a well-developed state census and income tax system, which Iraq currently lacks.”

As if that was any real excuse. Any of the big credit card company could have set up a program that could have reached 50 percent of the Iraqis in 1 year, with the ambition of covering 100 percent in five years. What a missed opportunity for a real silver bullet.

But the US has other strengths… for instance with respect to oil revenue sharing why not ask Hollywood to make an inspirational movie.

It could for instance depict how a hypothetical country, one like Venezuela in which 97 percent of all that nations exports go directly into government coffers, becomes fundamentally transformed for the better, when some a “Hayek platoon” manages to allow the power of oil resources to flow directly to the citizens.

Recently Marco Rubio stated: “More government isn’t going to help you get ahead. It’s going to hold you back. More government isn’t going to create more opportunities. It’s going to limit them. And more government isn’t going to inspire new ideas, new businesses and new private sector jobs. It’s going to create uncertainty.”

And so that idea would seem to fit the political platform of any Republican who aspires the presidency, and, hopefully, also that of some democrats.

And a good bumper sticker: “Citizen’s should not need to live in somebody else’s business – End Natural Resource Curses” could perhaps be a way to begin it all.

And Sir, you know of course that if there is one bumper sticker I would also like to see in the next elections, that is “Stop bank regulators’ odious discrimination… against the ‘risky’ SMEs and entrepreneurs… that is un-American… that does not belong in the Land of the Free nor in the Home of the Brave”.

@PerKurowski

Iraq needs mercenaries for peace

Sir, as Venezuelans know so well, it is impossible to build a real democracy upon abundant oil. Democracy is about creating a level playing field, and, therefore, if you want a real chance at democracy in an oil-rich land like Iraq, you need first to distribute their oil revenues equally among all their citizens. For Iraq, distributing their oil revenues upfront, in cash, would carry a special significance since not only would it help to solve the problem of their oil being located only in some parts of the country, but it would also foster an additional bond of national identity among all the Iraqis, be they Sunnis, Shiites, or Kurds. The possibility for each citizen to receive perhaps a couple of thousand dollars a year would promote interest in reaching normality. The World Bank could be the perfect candidate to help implement a very transparent sharing of the oil revenues for Iraq.

In a world where so frequently mercenaries are used for wars, why don’t we help Iraq contract their own citizens, using their own money, to be mercenaries for peace?

Iraq Study Group Baker Hamilton Bush Blair