Four years ago, three venezuelan universities: Universidad Simón Bolivar, Universidad Central de Venezuela and Universidad Católica Andrés Bello took it upon themselves to analyze the living standards conditions of the venezuelan people and came up with the Living Conditions Survey which shocked many around the world, for the data they published used to be of a public nature, both the Venezuelan Central Bank and the Venezuelan Institute of Statistics published those numbers. But, being Venezuela the socialist paradise that it is, disclosure of the devastating effects of leftist policies is counterproductive and falls short of the rampant propaganda that boasts how much of an economic powerhouse Venezuela is.
Venezuela is a concentration camp the size of Texas.
This study shows that by 2017:
87% of venezuelans live below the poverty line, making less than 1 US dollar a day.
61% of venezuelans live in extreme poverty, not making enough money to cover basic needs.
89.4% of venezuelans say that their current wage is insufficient for them to buy basic goods.
60% of venezuelans go to bed feeling hungry.
Drop-out rates in schools and universities is on the rise.
68% of venezuelans lack basic health insurance.
Venezuelans have lost in average 11kg (24lbs) of body weight.
Besides the figures that this survey is providing, the implications of this study also provide great insight on how the medicine scarcity is impacting the lives of venezuelans and the low quality healthcare that they are receiving in both the public and the private sector, also the rising inflation makes medicines unafordable. Absenteeism is on the rise for many venezuelans prefer to risk their jobs and stand in endless queues under a scorching sun to receive food rations provided by the government.
Assesing poverty has always been a controversial issue by professional hacks that enjoy counting the world's poor sociologists. Income poverty isn't the only aspect that is being taken into account by the Living Conditions Survey, fortunately for us, they also take into consideration the reality of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, for they take into consideration unsatisfied basic needs in order to construct a better indicator of poverty.
Other variables are taken in consideration, such as education, whether your home has floor tiling or indoor plumbing, having domestic appliances such as washing machines or fridges, electrical services and so on.
The implications of the use of this methodology is the fact that venezuelans have become empoverished because of chavismo's corrupt and fraudulent means of holding office.
Income poverty and subsidized food distribution go hand in hand in today's Venezuela-chavismo made a public policy to decide when the citizen puts food in it's mouth, for 53% of venezuelans outside the capital city of Caracas don't know when they are receiving food rations. In other words: Venezuela is concentration camp the size of Texas. A country of slaves. Stalin would be proud.
Flee from a country where all power is concentrated upon a man, for it is a country of slaves.- Simón Bolívar
The survey also studied a very dramatic issue in Venezuela, the ever-growing emigration rates, since all elections in this country are rigged, its citizens have decided to vote with their feet, by fleeing. Investigators asked if people have had a member of their family leave the country over the last five years, finding that just 8.5% of households have had someone in that situation, but here's the thing, about 815.000 people have left the country since 2012, and bulk of them have done so in the years in which the crisis has become worse, 2016 and 2017.
The study fails to identify the desire of emigrating venezuelans of ever returning to their homeland, sad. Because it implicates that the diaspora sees the country as being sentenced to forever bearing the chains of socialism. The same study also shows that 12% emigrants come from the poorest segments of the population.
This study claims that about 1.421.000 venezuelans have fled the country. If you take into consideration that 12%, about 170.000 are in extreme poverty, it's become a major challenge for receiving countries to cope and deal with these people. Which underlies the refugee and humanitarian crisis that you see in the venezuelan borders of Brazil and Colombia.
This also means that around 12% of the total population of Venezuela are running away from this socialist paradise. Try and imagine a city the size of Caracas without any population and that gives you the idea of how many people have left.
Emigrants are male in a majority, taking up 50.7% (but that ain't a gender issue), 88% of them are between 15 and 59 years old. So the bulk of the productive force is fleeing and looking for work. Which is the main reason they are emigrating.
So what you're left is a country in ruins, with an ever shrinking workforce, stuck in debt, corruption and poverty, whose goverment has shown its support for regimes like Iran, Cuba and North Korea, meddling in internal affairs of other countries and bankrolling leftist governments across the globe, which poses a fundamental threat to western civilization.
That's Venezuela, and yet I am shocked at how many millenials in the west, outside of Venezuela are showing their support for what's going on here. These are not your average Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter supporters but average, everyday yokels that fall for the giant propaganda machine of the Venezuelan regime.
So if you want to know what's going on, take a look at the study, read the real media of Venezuela and get a strong hold of what's coming to your country if you support chavismo worldwide. For the devastating effects of socialism are replicated everywhere, regardless of culture, of economic status, religion or race.
Socialism makes everybody go poor, and this study proves it without saying it.