Chavez’s Socialist Economic Policies Are Working - Unless, Of Course, You Like To Eat
You can buy a new car or shop in a bustling shopping mall with ease. Finding a chicken, some cooking oil, or other basic foods is becoming a bit more difficult. A lot more difficult, in fact:
CARACAS, Venezuela—The lines formed at dawn and remained long throughout the day _ hundreds upon hundreds of Venezuelans waiting to buy scarce milk, chicken and sugar at state-run outdoor markets staffed by soldiers in fatigues.
President Hugo Chavez’s government is trying to cope with shortages of some foods, and the lines at state-run “Megamercal” street markets show many Venezuelans are willing to wait for hours to snap up a handful of products they seldom find in supermarkets.
“You have to get in line and you have to be lucky,” said Maria Fernandez, a 64-year-old housewife who was trying to buy milk and chicken on Sunday.
Wait, though….we all know that socialism works for the little guy, right?
The government’s price controls are also “totally divorced” from reality _ in some cases below production costs _ making it unprofitable for suppliers to sell their products at official prices, said economist Pedro Palma of the Caracas consulting firm MetroEconomica.
Price controls that are forcing purveyors to sell products for less that what it takes to produce the product - and the idea isn’t working. Whod’a thunk it?
Chavez still has some of the people fooled all of the time but as his socialist economics start collapsing around his oddly shaped head you’ll see more and more of them awakening to the fact that socialism doesn’t work Hasn’t worked. Ever. Anywhere.
Chavez will trash Venezuela before they wise up to him, though.
