My latest animated “bar chart race” visualization above is an updated and improved version of this visualization from a year ago and above displays per capita GDP (in current US dollars) for all 12 South American countries annually from 1980 to 2022, with a focus on the rise and precipitous fall of Venezuela. The data are from the International Monetary Fund and include actual figures through 2019 and estimates for the years 2020 to 2022.

Note the following:

1. During the 1980s, Venezuela was consistently among the most prosperous South American countries measured by per capita GDP, and it ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in every year (with Argentina) from 1980 to 1988 except for 1987 (when it ranked No. 3).

2. During the 1990s, Venezuela consistently ranked among the top five wealthiest countries in South America. When Hugo Chavez took office in 1999, Venezuela ranked No. 4 among South American countries for per capita GDP and by 2008 Venezuela rose to the No. 1 spot. In that year, Venezuela ranked No. 61 globally for per capita GDP and was therefore among the top one-third of the most economically prosperous countries in the world (out of 194).

3. According to Wikipedia’s entry on Hugo Chavez, “the high oil profits coinciding with the start of Chavez’s presidency resulted in temporary improvements in areas such as poverty, literacy, income equality and quality of life between primarily 2003 and 2007, with a reversal beginning after around 2012.” Reflecting that temporary period of ephemeral economic prosperity, Venezuela ranked No. 2 for GDP per capita in South America in each of the three years between 2005 and 2007 behind No. 1 Chile, No. 1 in 2008 ahead of Chile, and No. 2 again in 2009 behind Chile. In each of the six years from 2007 to 2012, Venezuela ranked among the top one-third of 194 countries in the world for per capita GDP.

4. By the time Chavez died in office in 2013, Venezuela’s deteriorating economic conditions brought the country’s ranking in South America down to No. 5 for GDP per capita before falling to No. 6 in 2014. Globally, Venezuela’s rank fell to No. 79 in 2013 out of 194 countries and to No. 90 in 2014 (see chart below).

5. After a temporary rebound in Venezuela’s per capita GDP in 2015 and 2016 to the No. 4 position in South America behind Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile, Venezuela fell to the No. 11 position in 2017 (ahead of only Bolivia) before sinking to the bottom No. 12 position in 2018 and 2019. IMF estimates of per capita GDP for 2020 to 2022 rank Venezuela in last place among South American countries for five consecutive years (2018 to 2022), with an estimated figure of only $1,544 ($129 per month) by 2022. That would rank Venezuela #159 for per capita GDP out of 194 countries in 2022 (see chart above) and among the poorest one-fifth of countries in the world behind countries like Myanmar, Senegal, Cameroon, and Cambodia.

6. This year, Venezuela’s estimate per capita GDP of only $1,739 ($145 per month) is 75% below the average in South America of $6,834. Next year, Venezuela’s projected per capita GDP of only $1,586 ($132 per month) is expected to be more than 78.5% below South America’s average GDP per capita of $7,404 and in 2022 Venezuela’s $1,544 per capita GDP ($129 per month) will be 81% below the continent’s average of more than $8,000.

MP: The initial, temporary success of democratic socialism in Venezuela that was predictably followed by the precipitous economic decline illustrated in the visualization above provides a cautionary tale for those today in America who are attracted to the socialism being repackaged as “democratic socialism” and peddled by Bernie Sanders and AOC (“Karla Marx”). As I wrote in “Why Socialism Failed“:

There were some initial signs of
economic prosperity under Hugo Chavez’s democratic socialist regime in
Venezuela in the early part of this century, but that “success” was
brief and unsustainable. Chavez was able to distribute to his people
some of the bounty from stolen property when his government seized the
country’s oil production in 2006 and 2007 by forcibly taking over oil
companies such as Exxon Mobil, France’s Total, and Italy’s Eni.
Relatively high oil prices also artificially helped the socialist
regimes of both Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro in the short
run.

But the corrosive, demoralizing, and devastating effects of
socialism have now been exposed, as the country has gone into an
economic death spiral of poverty, chaos, starvation, and death.

…..

The
temptress of democratic socialism advanced today by Sanders and
Ocasio-Cortez, is constantly luring young Americans with the enticing
offer: “give up a little of your freedom and I will give you a little
more economic security.” And free college tuition, free healthcare, and
guaranteed housing. As the experience of Venezuela has clearly
demonstrated, the bargain is tempting but never pays off in the long
run. The unfortunate citizens of Venezuela have ended up losing both
their freedom and their economic security.

Programs like
socialized medicine, free college, guaranteed jobs, free housing, and
living wage laws will continue to entice us because on the surface they
appear to be expedient and beneficial. But those programs, like all
socialist programs, will fail in the long run regardless of initial
appearances. These programs are part of the dangerous Big Lie of
socialism because they ignore the important role of incentives.

Socialism
is being repackaged and recycled by today’s left-leaning politicians
including Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez and is being taken seriously by a
new young and gullible generation, many who weren’t even alive when the
historic events of the 1980s and 1990s occurred including the fall of
the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. But the lessons
from history about the defects, deficiencies, and failures of socialism
are very clear. As we’ve learned from countless examples throughout
history, including now Venezuela, the main difference between
capitalism and socialism is this: Capitalism works.

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