It costs $150 to buy a dozen eggs in Socialist Venezuela right now

[CMartel]

Socialist Utopia feels the Bern
http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-...htmlstory.html

It costs $150 to buy a dozen eggs in Venezuela right now

|Reporting from Caracas, Venezuela

The International Monetary Fund has predicted that inflation in Venezuela will hit 720% this year. That might be an optimistic assessment, according to some local economic analysts, who expect the rate to reach as high as 1,200%.

A sharp drop in global prices for oil -- on which Venezuela depends for most of its foreign currency -- is a big part of the problem. Critics also accuse the government of irresponsible spending on social welfare programs and oil subsidies to Cuba and other countries.

To understand what that kind of inflation means, we spoke to Maria Linares, a 42-year-old single mother who works as an accounting assistant at a government ministry and lives in an impoverished neighborhood of the capital, Caracas.

Her monthly pay, including a food allowance, is 27,000 bolivars.

That’s $2,700 a month at the official exchange rate of 10 bolivars to the dollar. But Venezuelans have so little faith in their currency -- or the government's ability to fix the country's deepening economic crisis -- that a dollar can fetch upward of 1,000 bolivars on the black market. At that rate, Linares earns just $27 a month.

Either way, it’s not enough.



In December, she was spending about half her salary on groceries. It now takes almost everything she earns to feed her two children, who subsist on manioc (also known as cassava or yuca), eggs and cornmeal patties called arepas, served with butter and plantains.

“The last time we had chicken was in December,” she said.

The best deals are generally at government-run stores, such as Mercal and Bicentenario, where the prices are regulated.

To shop there, however, Linares said, she has to line up overnight. Even then, she might come home empty-handed if everything sells out before she gets to the front of the line -- or if she is robbed leaving the store.

“The last time I bought food in a Mercal was three months ago,” she said. “They sold me one kilo [2.2 pounds] of rice, a kilo of pasta, a kilo of sugar and a liter of cooking oil for 1,540 bolivars. But to buy the basket of regulated products, I had to buy a watermelon for 400 bolivars. I didn’t want the watermelon and didn’t have the extra money to pay for it.”

These days, she buys most of her food from illegal street vendors known as bachaqueros.

Everything is more expensive, she said, and she might have to try five or six places to find what she needs. How much more expensive?

Here is what she spends on some staples:

Eggs


(Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press)

At the Mercal, a dozen eggs cost 450 bolivars in December.

The official price is now 1,020 bolivars. But Linares said she never finds eggs at the Mercal.

So she buys them from street vendors for around 1,500 bolivars -- a staggering $150 at the official exchange rate, or about $1.50 at the black market rate.

Manioc


(Andre Penner / Associated Press)

In December, Linares could buy manioc for about 50 bolivars per pound at the government-run stores.

The official price is now about 300 bolivars per pound.

Street vendors sell manioc for less, about 200 bolivars per pound, but Linares said the quality is inferior.

Powdered milk


(Fotolia / TNS)

In December, Linares could buy powdered milk for her 10-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son for about 90 bolivars per pound at the government-run stores.

The official price increased to 245 bolivars in February.

But Linares said she pays between 750 and 1,000 bolivars per pound at the street markets.

Corn flour

Arepas made of corn flour
Arepas made of corn flour (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Linares used to be able to buy corn flour to make arepas for just 9.5 bolivars per pound.

Last week, the official price increased to 95 bolivars per pound.

It's hard to find the product outside the government-run stores, and the price is much higher on the black market.

The family was never wealthy, Linares said, but such prices are making her and her kids feel poorer than ever.

“Now we are feeling hunger,” she said. “I don’t know what I’ll do if prices keep going up.”

[Puupi]

“I don’t know what I’ll do if prices keep going up.”

Prostitution and theft.

[Blur4stuff]

you have to fully embrace socialism to be USA president

socialist programs are extremely popular and you can't win without supporting them

[wowaccounttom]

dont eat eggs then....

better yet.. get some chickens and sell the eggs...

surely they have chickens .. its near mexico after all

[Socialhealer]

dont eat eggs then....

better yet.. get some chickens and sell the eggs...

surely they have chickens .. its near mexico after all

read the fucking thread, they haven't had chicken since December, it's clearly too rare/expensive.

[Firatha]

read the fucking thread, they haven't had chicken since December, it's clearly too rare/expensive.

Why are you so mad did he kick you in the balls while typing his post?

[Orbitus]

-snip-

Yes, we know you hate "socialism". But this wasn't the fault of socialism as the last thread was shown about Venezuela. This is the fault of putting all of your eggs in one basket with oil like they did. Perhaps you should educate yourself about such things before saying it was strictly "socialism" that caused this.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I sense the thinly veiled anti Socialism vibe in this thread. Problem is... Venezuela is a very very extreme example.

[Bollocks]

Well, when your goverment was run by a ex-bus driver and a confirmed loon its hard not to suffer economic consequences regardless of the economic (political) ideology that is predominant.

In before its the fault of socialism, do me a favor and google Francois Duvalier.

[Belize]

.. its near mexico after all

Uh.

Your Geography must be failing you.

[Thepersona]

https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad...ado-diario-abc
it's in spanish, so i'll translate (in a tl;dr):
Agustin Otxotecena, a vasque entrepenour has denounced that in the rich zones of caracas, their supermarkets are full of products, in contrast with the poorer neighbourhoods.
with that evidence in mind, it becomes plausible that, in venezuela there's a hoarding of goods, in order to force a shut down

[Socialhealer]

Why are you so mad did he kick you in the balls while typing his post?

keep it on topic, maybe you guys could collectively read the OP before posting bullshit.

[Firatha]

keep it on topic, maybe you guys could collectively read the OP before posting bullshit.

Because its like the OP is bait or anything right?

[Seefer]

/snip

Socialism =/= social democracy, please learn the difference.

[wowaccounttom]

Why are you so mad did he kick you in the balls while typing his post?

why yes i did

[Bollocks]

https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad...ado-diario-abc
it's in spanish, so i'll translate (in a tl;dr):
Agustin Otxotecena, a vasque entrepenour has denounced that in the rich zones of caracas, their supermarkets are full of products, in contrast with the poorer neighbourhoods

JA, no se porque no me sorprende. De igual manera , no improta, conociendo a las personas de este foro estoy seguro que hallarán la manera de echarle la culpa al socialismo.

[ArguesWithStrangers]

Don't bother man. I started a thread on this very topic a while ago and Endus and a bunch of others spent pages and pages trying to work through their cognitive dissonance over their claim that country that says it is socialist and implements socialist policies, isn't really socialist at all. When I provided them with a dictionary definition of socialism that matched the description of Venezuela, they said the dictionary was wrong. Facts bounce off these people. They run on pure emotion.

[Firatha]

why yes i did

I knew it!

[Socialhealer]

why yes i did

haha right you'll busy too busy watching futa hentai to kick anyone's balls, lick on the other hand....

[Zan15]

sigh another thread on a dictatorship that "said" they were socialist......