p it's tourism industry, hoping to surpass oil revenue by the year 2002. Agriculture, Banking, and Fishing complete the list of the nations major industriesAlthough the oil industry has generated great wealth, society remains sharply divided between rich and poor. An elite class of businessmen, oil-company technicians , and large landowners controls most of the country's resources, while a large number ofunskilled urban laborers and rural farm workers live in relative poverty.As a upper-middle income, oil-producing country, Venezuela enjoyed the higheststandard of living in Latin America. The country's gross domestic product in 1988 wasapproximately US $58 billion, or roughly US $3,100 per capita . Although the petroleum industry has dominated the Venezulean economy since the 1920s, aluminum, steel, and petrochemicals are catching up.As long as there is a class system separating the rich from the poor andunstable government, and a high birth rate, the oil reserves cannot take thecountry out of it's third world grouping with South America. Although tourism can be tainted by corrupt politicians and drug cartels, the diversification may be what Venezuela needs to keep off International Welfare Assistance. Maybe the United States could enter into a "trade" agreement and swap for oil for aid money. The distance between the two countries may be shorter than the U.S.'s Alaskan Pipeline. . ...
