Dictatorship brings profit to dictators and its clique, but not to the citizens

Personal income is one of the variables of development we included from the beginning of the debate, along with education, health and internal and external security (definition never contested by the counterpart). Since underdeveloped countries have higher population growth rates than developed countries (some of the latter have even reduced their population over recent years), it is a foreseeable fact that dictatorships established in underdeveloped countries have a smaller GDP per capita than they developed peers. This fact doesn't deny that, in aggregate, underdeveloped dictatorships are growing more than democracies, which summed to the fact that underdeveloped countries are decreasing their population growth rate, is sketching a path towards economic convergence. The counterpart fails to give evidence to back their assertion that dictatorships only bring income to the government and no welfare to the citizens (and does not explain what their concept of welfare means). Also, The counterpart falsely assumes that dictatorships lack incentives and mechanisms for incorporating the citizens needs into public policy. Regarding the Gómez regime, the counterpart has three mayor blunders, based on the misunderstanding of the political context and the dynamics of the oil business. First, Gómez regime was based on the ideas of political positivism. These ideas, based on the anarchy and civil conflict that rose from the constantly flawed attempts to establish liberal institutions in the 19th century, stated that since Venezuelans were not able to administer political liberties, order should be the main priority of any national government. It would bring with it economic accumulation and the possibility to provide social services to citizens, so that they could become capable of administering further political liberties in the future. To appease the country by the dismantling of the caudillos' power, Gómez required to unify the army, create the air force, construct a brand new road infrastructure to effectively communicate the different parts of the country with the Capital, and to increase the presence of internal security forces throughout the country. In the end, all this bred a unified country where there used to be independent sub-regions artificially joined. Achieving this goal of order up until his death, which could enable the country to achieve sustainable social development, logically demanded the most of the budget of the nation. Following the death of Gómez, governments of General Eleazar López Contreras and of General Isaías Medina Angarita continued to apply the same political positivism ideas. Since order was ensured in the Gómez era, López started to develop social policies in the education and health fields (known as the "Plan de febrero"). Gral. Medina legalized many democratic political parties such as "Acción Democrática", and allowed the return of many politically exiled. He was overthrown by a pro-democratic military coup in 1945 that led to the first democratically elected government (which was to be overthrown three years later for a new military junta). This proves that the order and security expenditure in the Gómez era was part of a bigger plan for sustainable development in Venezuela, that came out as an alternative to artificial and unfeasible democratic attempts in the 19th century, and that ended not because of its failure, but because of an early and violent imposition of democracy that didn't even last three years. When pop songstress Shakira first started, nobody bet on her success. Investing on her was a very risky thing to do, since there was no certainty of her profitability. The only way in which any music label was to hire her was if the company got the most of the profits if the public did like her. This is exactly what happened at the start of the Venezuelan oil production. Oil companies must engage in costly exploration and infrastructure building with an enormous uncertainty on their chances of finding oil. Before the oil production began, the 5 American oil companies cartel was not willing to accept anything bellow the agreement. The crossroad for the Gómez regime was actually pretty easy, since it was either accept the terms and bring the Foreign investment, or continue to be the Banana Republic we surely were. Once a star, the second contract that Shakira signed was much more profitable for her than the first one, but she still worked with a Music Label to coordinate her productive musical career. Once Venezuela was proven to have enormous oil reserves, the contracts were reviewed on the governments of Gral. López Contreras and Gral. Medina Angarita (The latter established the famous 50-50 oil income rate), but the oil contractors still ran the industry with the technology and know how that only they had. Sadly, once Venezuela became fully democratic in 1958, a populist approach of "All the oil to the people" justified pressures over the oil companies. This process led to the nationalization of the industry in 1976, which left the country without the capital (Both human and financial) to exploit and refine our extra heavy oil reserves.