☆ Chavista Elitists Rake In Millions While Venezuela Suffers The Venezuelan central government has obtained US$10.68 million in credit from the National Assembly to import basic personal-hygiene products that have remained scarce since last year. Unfortunately, news of the loan is unlikely to inspire relief among Venezuelans who must wait in long lines to buy bare necessities such as toilet paper. Scarcity of everything from milk to toothpaste has become endemic throughout Venezuela, and store shelves are often stocked with only one brand option, if at all, forcing Venezuelans to overpay for ill-suited products before the available supply runs out. In a country where hospitals close their doors and children must skip school to lend their desks to classmates, Venezuela’s investment in imported consumer goods seems misplaced at best. In Venezuelan supermarkets only one option exists for many basic consumer products, as seen in the image here. Hugo Chávez preached prosperity for the masses, but left behind a legacy of corruption, cronyism, runaway inflation, scarcity, and wasted resources. And of course, the government under Nicolás Maduro has done little if anything to correct this... if anything its even worse. While Venezuela suffers the highest inflation rate in the world, the government continues to neglect the country’s economic potential. In one of the great ironies of our time, Venezuela remains blessed with the world’s largest crude oil reserve, while Venezuelans are left to live impecuniously, unable to select even the shampoo that they desire. Imported food containers are repeatedly left to rot at the Puerto Cabello shipping docks, Venezuela’s largest international trade port. Importers have no incentive to intervene as good food wastes away, because the government has guaranteed payment for the produce in advance. So whos getting wealthy from this? The importers, of course... Maduros chavista friends. In the words of millionaire and 1992 coup participant retired Navy Captain William Biancucci, one of Chávez’s closest friends, “Socialism is wealth.” Similarly disheartening is the “surcharge” scandal involving one of Chávez’s daughters, Maria Gabriela, the new alternate Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations, on the importation of Argentinean rice. We can now observe the enrichment of a minority and the impoverishment of the majority, an unprecedented national currency devaluation. A recent college graduate in the 1980s could earn a $1,000 a month salary, whereas $100 is the new standard. Its the highest inflation rate in the world (152 percent in 2014, according to the Cato Institute), and a tremendous waste of human capital, as professionals and entrepreneurs emigrate. Yes, “Socialism is wealth” in Venezuela, if one has the right friends in the right places. #VenEconomy #SOSVenezuela #chavista #Maduro
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 06:47:02 +0000
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