The Real Right To Life: Venezuela Expands Benefits for Elderly while the U.S. Pepper-Sprays Them.

[Judi Lynn]

Sun Nov 20, 2011 at 03:00 PM PST.

The Real Right To Life: Venezuela Expands Benefits for Elderly while the U.S. Pepper-Sprays Them.

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." Mahatma Ghandi

In Chicago on November 7, 2011, hundreds of senior citizens joined with Occupy Chicago and their union supporters to protest the Congressional Super Committee's proposed cuts to social security and Medicare. Forty seven seniors were arrested, along with four persons in wheel chairs for refusing to move from the street.


[font size=1]
In Seattle, Dorli Rainey, age 84 was
pepper-sprayed in the face, when she dared to
stop to observe Occupy Seattle actions on
November 16, 2011, while 87 year old Francis
Goldin was pushed back in a crowd by police
during an Occupy Wall Street demonstration in
New York City.[/font]

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
While the oligarchs in the U.S. are arresting and pepper-spraying senior citizens and the disabled for daring to assembly to demand no cuts in their already minimal social security benefits, last month the socialist government in Venezuela launched a massive program, fueled by a comprehensive new law, to improve the quality of life of their senior citizens and disabled, by guaranteeing pensions, medical assistance, adequate food and housing and many other services to all in fulfillment of the mandate of section Venezuela's Constitution of 1999 which guarantees the rights, including the right to a quality life, to the elderly and disabled. (see http://venezuelanalysis.com/...)

The pensions must equate with the current minimum wage, which has been increased every May 1st for the last ten years, until Venezuela has the highest minimum wage in South and Central America. Previous to this initiative in Venezuela, social security benefits were only provided to those who had accumulated a certain number of work credits in formal jobs. These benefits will apply to all, whether they have worked in the formal economy and accumulated work credits or not.

Unfortunately, in the U.S., current Social Security pensions for many people provide less than poverty level income to recipients. The average benefit in the U.S. is a little more than $1100 a month, many people, especially women with low paid work histories, receive much less than that $1100. The federal poverty guidelines set $10,890 as the poverty line figure for the contiguous 48 states, while federal poverty levels figures for Hawaii are $12,540 and Alaska is set at $13,600.

More:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/20/1038411/-The-Real-Right-To-Life-Venezuela-Expands-Benefits-for-Elderly-while-the-U-S-Pepper-Sprays-Them#

[enid602]

1. inflation

With 60% inflation, the increases in VZ will be worthless.

[Bacchus4.0]

4. Looks like someone is taking a ride in a time machine n/t

[MADem]

5. Really....2011--HOT TUB time machine!!!! nt

[Judi Lynn]

2. AP: Chavez Wasted His Money on Healthcare When He Could Have Built Gigantic Skyscrapers

Mar 06 2013

AP: Chavez Wasted His Money on Healthcare When He Could Have Built Gigantic Skyscrapers

By Jim Naureckas

One of the more bizarre takes on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's death comes from Associated Press business reporter Pamela Sampson (3/5/13):

Chavez invested Venezuela's oil wealth into social programs including state-run food markets, cash benefits for poor families, free health clinics and education programs. But those gains were meager compared with the spectacular construction projects that oil riches spurred in glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world's tallest building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi.

That's right: Chavez squandered his nation's oil money on healthcare, education and nutrition when he could have been building the world's tallest building or his own branch of the Louvre. What kind of monster has priorities like that?

In case you're curious about what kind of results this kooky agenda had, here's a chart (NACLA, 10/8/12) based on World Bank poverty stats–showing the proportion of Venezuelans living on less than $2 a day falling from 35 percent to 13 percent over three years. (For comparison purposes, there's a similar stat for Brazil, which made substantial but less dramatic progress against poverty over the same time period.)

More:
http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/03/06/ap-chavez-wasted-his-money-on-healthcare-when-he-could-have-built-gigantic-skyscrapers/

[Judi Lynn]

3. Venezuela Leads Region in Poverty Reduction in 2012, ECLAC Says

Venezuela Leads Region in Poverty Reduction in 2012, ECLAC Says
Written by Dan Beeton and Joe Sammut
Friday, 06 December 2013 10:19

The Associated Press reported yesterday that the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has highlighted a slowing of progress in poverty reduction in Latin America, citing “rising food costs and weaker economic growth” as contributing factors:

Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean is now easing at a slower pace, the UN's regional economic body said on Thursday, calling on governments to make policy changes that encourage growth while reducing the huge gap between the rich and poor.

UN economists based in Santiago said about 164 million people, or 28 percent of the region's population, are still considered poor. That is nearly unchanged from last year. Out of those, 68 million of them are in extreme poverty.

But there are bright spots. ECLAC’s new “Social Panorama of Latin America” report [PDF] notes that Venezuela and Ecuador led the region in decreasing poverty in 2012:

Six of the 11 countries with information available in 2012 recorded falling poverty levels (see table 1). The largest drop was in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, where poverty fell by 5.6 percentage points (from 29.5% to 23.9%) and extreme poverty by 2.0 percentage points (from 11.7% to 9.7%). In Ecuador, poverty was down by 3.1 percentage points (from 35.3% to 32.2%) and indigence by 0.9 percentage points (from 13.8% to 12.9%).

This 5.6 percentage point decrease in Venezuela translates into a 19 percent decline in poverty overall last year, which CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot noted last month “is almost certainly the largest decline in poverty in the Americas for 2012, and one of the largest – if not the largest – in the world.”

This dramatic decrease in poverty is likely due to the impact of two new misiones (social programmes), the Gran Misión En Amor Mayor Venezuela and the Gran Misión Hijos de Venezuela, which were, by January 2013, benefitting more than 1,400,000 people.

More:
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/venezuela-leads-region-in-poverty-reduction-in-2012-eclac-says

[Judi Lynn]

6. A couple of right-wingers seem confused enough to imagine this is Late Breaking News.

Looks as if they have very little to contribute to this forum, doesn't it?

[Bacchus4.0]

7. American spy working for Cuba caught in US