It’s sad to watch Venezuela’s economy being crushed by its president, Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela’s real inflation is 280% a year, but the government is trying to deny that by imposing price ceilings and artificially limiting access to foreign currency. The result is massive shortages made even worse by the fact that it’s more profitable to smuggle the rationed goods back out of the country.
But the scariest is that Maduro recently ordered a military-backed looting of one of its big box chains. Those stores certainly won’t be able to re-stock at the government-set prices, so basically Maduro just directly destroyed that business, and all other retailers know they could be next.
Normally this inflation would make Venezuela’s products and labor force more competitive and spur foreign investment to stabilize the economy, but the Venezuelan government can no longer be trusted. If Maduro is re-elected, Venezuela will continue sinking towards a completely government-controlled state, like Cuba. But at least it will be easier to escape from.
Venezuela is sliding into full blown communism now. It is sad that people let race and class hatred blind them so utterly that they embrace an ideology that has already wreaked horrific havoc elsewhere. They rush joyously to steal a TV that can’t be repaired when it breaks because the store is now closed, but have no milk or toilet paper and blame the CIA instead of the idiots they have elected. 90 per cent of murders go unpunished but they build expensive missile sites in poor neighborhoods because the gringos are going to attack the poor and steal their oil (which they already get by buying it). They have to import what they used to produce but see no danger in this. Beware the poor when they take political power! Hate and stupidity = destruction.