This book explains why Venezuela is so rich in natural resources - it has been producing oil since 1922 and harbors the largest oil reserves in the world - and yet it is also a failed nation of class-divided citizens exhibiting deep poverty in a corrupt, incompetent state. Venezuela is a bipolar nation, where two marked poles in the society exist which have historical origins and are mutually exclusive. The book provides an overview of Venezuela's history, economy and politics and explains the context and implications of the bipolar poles, known as the elite pole and the resentful pole. Both, it shows, have done serious harm to Venezuela’s prosperity. The author describes the vicious circle of oil wealth, corruption, inefficiency and world market dependency and gives recommendations for a better future.

It is a scientific fact that primary energy has always been one of the principal drivers behind the growth of human prosperity; it is also a scientific fact that its most efficient source, fossil based petroleum, is finite and subject to depletion. The economic fact that this book proves beyond doubt is that the unprecedented economic and financial problems that the world, particularly the high oil consuming nations, are currently facing are a result of the decreasing physical ability of the World to increase its capacity to produce more oil to power the demands of rising economic growth and population. This book is about examining the overwhelming importance of energy within the production, consumption, costs, growth and monetary creation of our modern economic system and human prosperity.