Yeah, for years the opposition in Venezuela said the same thing: the government's social programs are a way of "buying the votes" of poor people.
After getting their clocks cleaned by the Chavistas in election after election, the opposition started to change its tune. On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 6:51 PM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: > Robert Naiman wrote: >> Ironically, Iran has been reducing its fuel consumption subsidies, >> something it has long wanted to do on economic grounds, under the >> pressure of US-led sanctions. In fact, US sanctions gave them a >> nationalist excuse to do what they wanted to do anyway. An interesting >> case study in "Pareto improvement." >> >> Also interesting is that Iran had a careful plan for reducing the >> subsidies in a way that would not cause widespread social unrest. Part >> of it was replacing the subsidy by direct payments - just as classical >> economics would suggest - and part of it was starting the curtailment >> at the margin, so as to have maximum effect with minimum pain.... > > FWIW, a friend of mine from Iran suggests that the Ahmadinejad > government's giving of direct payments to peasants and other poor > people is a way of buying votes! > -- > Jim Devine / It's time to Occupy the New Year! > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
