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Nah, this is the result of corruption. We should be worried in the US, this could be our future.

Sorry, this is a result of socialism. Chavez undercut the middle class by giving or selling staple goods to the poor voting class, subsidized by the oil wealth. This undercut the middle class and anyone who sold things based on market supply and demand.

Source: I studied abroad there in 2001-2002 and I witnessed the overthrow of Chavez and learned a lot from the people in addition to studying the economics of the situation afterwards.

Corruption can only harm you to the extent that corrupt organizations have power over you.

e.g. You worry about the cops being corrupt; you don't worry much about a local restaurant owner being corrupt because you can just eat somewhere else.

This is why small government, freedom and individualism are very simple and effective antidotes to corruption.

Small in size doesn't imply small in power to me. The smallest kind of government only governs the military and nothing else.

In which case you probably won't even encounter them unless either you walk/drive/travel near to a military asset/base, or your government's territory gets invaded.

Unless, you mean to describe juntas as "small"? (I wouldn't, since in those cases the military takes on many more tasks than it normally would...)

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