Venezuelans Scramble for Food Amid Oil IOpulence

Venezuelans Scramble for Food Amid Oil IOpulence

www.reuters.com

Venezuelan consumers are increasingly facing periodic shortages of basic food products as the economy shows signs of overheating amid record revenues from an oil boom.

The shortages have increased skepticism of Chavez's economic policies and provided a political backdrop to campaigning this month for a referendum on a new constitution that he says is needed to make Venezuela a socialist state.

Businesses say price controls on staple foods are so low they discourage investment and force stores

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Chavez's price controls for food are so low that stores can't make a profit from selling the food, so they don't order the food products that they can't make a profit from, which is creating shortages.

The food products that are in short supply now include cooking oil, beef, milk, sugar, and flour. Businesses like Bakeries are struggling to find enough to even stay open. People are skipping work just to find these necessities.

And who does Chavez blame these shortages on? The poor people that he says benefited from his social programs. "The government says the problem is caused by growing demand by poor citizens who benefit from social programs."

That the way to be a leader! There's ALWAYS SOMEBODY to put the blame on. It's always the same way with most governments, you don't try to fix the problem right away, the first thing you HAVE to do is put the blame somewhere besides on yourself.

www.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Hugo Chavez is the biggest thorn in the paw of his own people. He is just taking away his people's basic neccessities in order to pass legislation to oppress them more.

"The government says the problem is caused by growing demand by poor citizens who benefit from social programs."

So he is blaming the social class that he is creating on the fact that he doesn't know a thing about economics. typical...

Wow, i remember when i lived there about 8 years ago, the food already was incradably cheap.

It was less then 30 cents for a dozen fresh baked french rolls.

And they had one cent popcicles.

Then again when i lived there, the rate of exchange was about 500 Boliveries to a dollar, and now it is at 2250 B's to a dollar, but take into acount that Chavez froze the vaule of the currency over 3 years ago...

I wish i still knew people that lived there, all my Venezalano friends and thier familes moved out of the country.

Looks like powdered milk is $12, or 27,000 Boliveries! SWEET MERECY, i forgot about that stuff, oh that was so nasty, the stores back then rarely ever had liquid milk, and i don't remember how much milk was...

And on the curency, just for fun, while i was living there the highest bill was a 1000 note. And before we left, they had introduced a 5000 note and a 10,000 note, i wonder if they have some new bills. Considering the 10,000 note is now less then a $5 bill....


Oh, and just for fun, gas was less then a nickel a gallon when we first moved there, and closer to 15 cents a gallon when we left...

[edit on 11/13/2007 by TKainZero]

reply to post by TKainZero


Tkain,
Would you mind saying what it was that brought you to that country and what made you leave?

reply to post by RedGolem


www.abovepolitics.com...

On that thread i outly the entire situation, its the realy big post.

In short, my dad is in oil, and we left because the Chavez Nationalised the oil fields.

reply to post by TKainZero


ok, thanks for the replay Tkain