I wrote: > It may be my temperament, but I tend to stress the exact opposite: > The horrible thing about these oil rents is that they lead people to > complacency by creating the impression that waste is affordable."
Cristobal Senior-Ruiz replied: > Comment:This very condescending reasoning. It assumes that oil revenues > when invested in physical and social infrastructure are being "wasted". > Julio and you should show proof of this before making this accusation. But I'm not assuming that, Cristobal. Actually, if you re-read what I wrote about Luciano Wexler's article, you'll see that I'm totally supportive of Venezuela's plan to take a bucket and scoop oil revenues into health, education, physical infrastructure, anti-poverty actions, etc. But what Jim and I were talking about is the fact that the bucket is likely to have *holes* and dear resources may leak out. And I'm not accusing anybody. Venezuelans are not defensive -- in fact, they're very candid about the holes in their bucket and they would like to plug them as much and as soon as possible. I also wrote: >If the economy is not becoming more efficient (productive) at the pace of > those leading the world market (actually, faster when you're trying to catch > up), then it's effectively losing ground. And your comment is this: > No kidding! Speaking of tautologies! And a hare will always beat a > turtle,Zeno not withstanding" I'm glad you think this is obvious. But just because something is obvious doesn't mean we draw all the practical conclusions from it. Regular humans often need silly reminders of this kind. I do anyway. (And I try to assume, at least on PEN-L, that we're chatting among friends, on the same side of the trench. So I don't feel like we are only allowed to state profound and original ideas here.) > Well. if he is going to receive advices like the ones quoted above, then not > having economists is to his benefit. But, more seriously, this again a > strong assumption. Of course Venezuela has a team of very capable economists > all schooled in the Structural economics of Ecla. No need for neo-classical > economics or expertise in the FROP theory or the transformation problem, or > thank god! Take it easy, Cristobal. Use your righteous anger against targets more worthy of it. I just returned from spending a week in Venezuela -- admittedly, a very very short period of time to conclude much from it. But a theme I heard over and over again from the mid- and high-level government officials I met was that they sorely need economic advice -- not excellent, not great, just good enough. In fact, that's why I was invited to Venezuela in the first place -- and I'm admittedly a lousy economist. The lack of needed economic expertise is something Michael Lebowitz, who lives in Caracas, has also observed. So, maybe you're right that they don't need our silly advice, but maybe you're wrong. Julio
