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Arm the poor?

Why is the dear leader talking about spending huge amounts of money on Space stuff when he cannot even guarantee power for his population?

Priorities or what..........

It would help if you could keep your years straight as well.
 
funk de fino said:
Why is the dear leader talking about spending huge amounts of money on Space stuff when he cannot even guarantee power for his population?
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Didn't the drought affect the hydroelectric dams?

Without the infrastructure in place to buy power from other LA countries, would spending this money on importing electricity (which I'm assuming you're suggesting) even be a feasible option?
 
"The issue remains delicate after the Brazilian company Embraer lost a deal to sell military aircraft to Venezuela because the planes included American technology."

(From DC's first link)

This is interesting to me. Can the US executive order its companies not to sell certain technologies to certain countries, even if the parts themselves are manufactured in other countries; e.g. would a GE plant in Brazil manufacturing avionics be subject to export restrictions to Venezuela?
 
Pretty hilarious that the U.S. is questioning another country's war spending.
 
Captain.Sassy said:
Didn't the drought affect the hydroelectric dams?

Without the infrastructure in place to buy power from other LA countries, would spending this money on importing electricity (which I'm assuming you're suggesting) even be a feasible option?
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I am not suggesting options for him to fix it. That is his job. Not spending money on a space race would be a good start.
 
funk de fino said:
I am not suggesting options for him to fix it. That is his job. Not spending money on a space race would be a good start.
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Maybe he plans to send half the population into space, thus solving the hunger problems.
 
funk de fino said:
I am not suggesting options for him to fix it. That is his job. Not spending money on a space race would be a good start.
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And how much money has he spent on the space program so far?

Is this anything other than long-term 'friendship and amity' talks so far?

What about him asking the Ivans to help out with developing nuclear power plants? Perhaps this will help improve the security of the Venezuelan electricity supply.

As for the arms purchases, what is a reasonable share of GDP for Venezuela to spend on weapons?

I know in Canada, when capital purchases are made, they are amortized in the budget for the expected lifetime of the piece of equipment. So if a 10$ tank is supposed to last 10 years, this is counted as 1$ per year. If some Venezuelan capital arms purchases are not amortized like this then Venezuela's current round of purchases could look quite high, especially if compared to countries that do amortize their arms purchases reporting.
 
Peephole said:
Pretty hilarious that the U.S. is questioning another country's war spending.
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Who is Venezuela at war with?

Hugo isn't war spending, you need to learn some new words, and what words mean.

But I appreciate that, seen from a third party, a criticism of another nation's defense spending habits comes from Washington.

To answer another question, a great number of US defense contracts with foreign nations have specific clauses against tech transfer. Among others, Israel has violated these agreed terms, and if you have been following the news on this stuff for the past few decades, you find it crops up with some regularity.

This opens the door for French or Russian or Israeli or South African or Chinese firms/partnerships to sell arms where we won't, as they rarely have as many strings attached to arms sales.

DR
 
Captain.Sassy said:
"The issue remains delicate after the Brazilian company Embraer lost a deal to sell military aircraft to Venezuela because the planes included American technology."

(From DC's first link)

This is interesting to me. Can the US executive order its companies not to sell certain technologies to certain countries, even if the parts themselves are manufactured in other countries; e.g. would a GE plant in Brazil manufacturing avionics be subject to export restrictions to Venezuela?
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Generally, yes.

Comes under the heading of "Restricted Technology". The US Department of Commerce forbids certain classes of US-made technology ending up in certain countries regardless of how it gets there. Usually known as restricted-license technology.

E.g. Consider someone who builds restricted-license super-chips into toaster controllers which go into toasters built in Mexico. Mexico can sell those toasters back to the USA or to Europe or Australia, but sales from Mexico to North Korea would be forbidden.

http://www.bis.doc.gov/licensing/exportingbasics.htm
 
Thanks for the info, DR and Zep.

Since you guys seem to be up on this issue, I hope you won't mind fielding another question.

Can the US gov't restrict the kinds of technology US headquartered companies are allowed to develop under license from a foreign gov't? Like, say I'm Ukraine, or even say I'm Canada; if I tried to contract with GE to develop new avionics that were not directly under US gov't license, could the US gov't step in and tell GE 'no'? I'm assuming such technology wouldn't fall under the 'restricted license' clause, since the US gov't wouldn't have contracted for its development in the first place...
 
Captain.Sassy said:
And how much money has he spent on the space program so far?
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Bejesus. It's not what he has spent, it's that he is even thinking of spending it when the country is in such a mess.

Is this anything other than long-term 'friendship and amity' talks so far?

What about him asking the Ivans to help out with developing nuclear power plants? Perhaps this will help improve the security of the Venezuelan electricity supply.
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I am not disagreeing with the help with Nuclear.

As for the arms purchases, what is a reasonable share of GDP for Venezuela to spend on weapons?
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Not my bag.
 
funk de fino said:
Bejesus. It's not what he has spent, it's that he is even thinking of spending it when the country is in such a mess.
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Many countries with socio-economic problems that need to be addressed spend some of their money on weapons. As soon as you accept that Venezuela has any legitimate reason to buy arms, then you accept that some level of military spending is necessary. The question becomes one of how much military spending is justifiable, which is a question that can only be answered by, in part, looking at how much money is available to spend. This is why considering military expenditures as a share of GDP is important, and also why considering whether these expenditures (a lot of capital expenditures, as I understand it, to make up for the declining useability of US weapons systems since further arms exports to Venezuela are now blocked) are 'one-offs' or continuous (the amortization question).

If it's 'not your bag' to hazard a guess as to what a reasonable level of GDP to spend on arms would be for Venezuela, then I have a hard time taking your assertion that Venezuela is spending too much at face value.

I hope this comment isn't coming off as rude or anything.

Cheers!
CS
 
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Captain.Sassy said:
As for the arms purchases, what is a reasonable share of GDP for Venezuela to spend on weapons?
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I cannot judge what Hugo "should" spend on weapons/defense since his process isn't alike enough to the process I am familiar with in America to understand why a given year's budget is the size it is.

The US gets yelled at for spending over 4% GDP on defense, by the usual dipsticks the world over. Many of the European allies of the US spend around 2% of GDP, more or less, on Defense spending.

If Hugo is undergoing a huge modernization program, he'd have a few years of well over his normal GDP percentage, whatever that is: 2%, 5%, 10%.

From a budget office prospective, one would hope that after a five year plan of higher expenditures to modernize, he'd reduce a bit and allocate funds in other programs.

We see the ups and downs of US defense spending, and while Hugo isn't bound by the way we, or anyone else do things, he still ought to look at his risks versus his capability versus all the other areas of public expenditures that help Venezuela achieve its goals.

How good he is at all that is open to question.

DR
 
Darth Rotor said:
The US gets yelled at for spending over 4% GDP on defense, by the usual dipsticks the world over. Many of the European allies of the US spend around 2% of GDP, more or less, on Defense spending.
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I think Sweden spends around that much too, actually.

If Hugo is undergoing a huge modernization program, he'd have a few years of well over his normal GDP percentage, whatever that is: 2%, 5%, 10%.
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One of the links said he was buying Sukhois to replace F-16s since Venezuela can't buy replacement parts for the latter anymore.


he still ought to look at his risks versus his capability versus all the other areas of public expenditures that help Venezuela achieve its goals.
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Of course, this is both basic strategy and basic public policy and was the point I was trying to make. I don't know how smart buying SU-35s is. They're probably pretty expensive. Of course, Russia is anxious to keep exports up to maintain its arms industry, so they may be willing to subsidise the cost of the planes somewhat. Still, if the threat is the US (which the Venezuelans have suggested is why they're acquiring fighter planes), they have little hope of beating the US at air superiority in a hot war so I can't imagine fighters being of much use, no matter how advanced. SAMS would probably be a much better investment.
 
Captain.Sassy said:
One of the links said he was buying Sukhois to replace F-16s since Venezuela can't buy replacement parts for the latter anymore.
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Much to the chagrin of the F-16's manufacturer, no doubt. :cool:
I don't know how smart buying SU-35s is.
About as smart as the Shah buying F-14s. :cool:

Still, if the threat is the US (which the Venezuelans have suggested is why they're acquiring fighter planes), they have little hope of beating the US at air superiority in a hot war so I can't imagine fighters being of much use, no matter how advanced. SAMS would probably be a much better investment.
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My guess is Hugo wants to do some dick measuring vis a vis local powers: Colombia, Brazil, Argentina.

I agree with this: if he worries about US air strikes, he needs SAMS, though you can't just cede the skies to US airplanes. You need to have something up there for an integrated air defense posture, and Air to Air platforms have a flexibility that SAMs don't. It's a matter of force balancing.

What Hugo is doing is for political effect as much as it is for capability augmentation.

DR
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