Has Anyone Ever Heard of This? if So What Do You Think Can Be Done to Solve This?
Question by noname: has anyone ever heard of this? if so what do you think can be done to solve this?
CARACAS, VENEZUELA — Police swooped down last week on a grimy central market district, forced open a warehouse and seized 7 tons of a white substance. It wasn’t cocaine. The contraband was sugar, and the seizure of at least 184 tons nationwide showed how President Hugo Chavez’s efforts to remake the economy are fraying at the edges.
Chavez has imposed price controls on a variety of goods, such as 29 basic food items produced in Venezuela including beans, cooking oil, meat and chicken. He also has imported such goods as Uruguayan pasta and Brazilian pork that are resold to the poor at greatly reduced costs, thanks to government subsidies.
But mismanagement, rampant corruption and scarcities have cut into Mercal’s operations. At the same time, low prices set by the government have caused manufacturers and other suppliers either to cut production or divert output to an enormous black market.
At the same time, the flood of cash washing over Venezuela from oil sales has caused demand for all goods — watches and whiskey, detergent and SUVs — to climb, adding inflationary pressure.
The reigniting of inflation threatens the poor constituency Chavez is trying to help, economists say.
Meat disappeared for several days after slaughterhouses shut down, saying they couldn’t afford to process meat at the prices set by the government.
A sugar industry source said production had fallen because prices the industry received were lower than farmers’ cost of production and because the government-sponsored takeover of sugar cane plantations had cut productivity
In the poor Caracas suburb of Catia on Saturday, sugar and chicken were being rationed at a Mercal shop for the first time in a week. “I came in the morning and waited two hours for milk. Now I’m back in line waiting for chicken, one to a family,” said Marietta Abreu, as she stood with 100 other customers.
In the Quinta Crespo market and in the informal stalls that surround it, sugar and tuna were being sold under the table for three times the government-mandated prices, eggs and meat for twice the prescribed prices.
“The government wants all the power, but they can’t control how we think. This is a free country,” said a street vendor who was selling black beans at twice the regulated price of 45 cents a half-kilo.
Best answer:
Answer by JuanB
Looks like they have gone the American way, except with more noble reasons. Not like the American Sugar-beet lobby. So what part of it do you see that needs solving? It sounds like an economy trying to keep jobs at the expense of prices. Sound familiar? Except they have less worldly clout to throw around and things are becoming more globalized. To solve, work WITH the world markets and look to where you can improve. See where you are competitive, and make yourself more competitive there, and if you aren’t competitive in sugar, let that industry die. Better a quicker death than making it long and painful.
Answer by intel_knight
another attempt an “equal society” … where everybody is equally poor
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