(05-17-2020, 06:17 PM)lastonealive Wrote: I think the answer here is that everyone knows who Chavez is and nobody can name a Norwegian leader.

One is a democracy the other wasn't. Got nothing in common except state oil.

Thats true. I don't think anyone could name as Venezuelan leader before Chavez, either. But it's a symptom, not a cause. 
The men and women who know how to get oil out of the ground don't care if the owner is private shareholders or a government. As long as they get a fair salary and some bonuses, they don't care if the dividends go to some distant shareholder or a distant government treasury.  As long as the competent ones are promoted and the incompetent ones aren't, the oil will keep coming. The equipment works the same way.  As long as the owner invests in maintenance and upgrades before he takes profits, they also keep chugging.
Chavez decided all the PVDSA profits needed to go directly to the poor. The leaders there said no, we have to reinvest some of the profits in machinery and bonuses. Chavez appointed new leaders that were personally loyal to him.  There was a general strike, and 18,000 oil workers were fired.  The replacements weren't as good, and didn't know which machines needed what maintenance, and there was much less money set aside for maintenance anyhow. Not much more complicated than that.

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