Slashdot Mirror
Venezuela: Cheap Television Sets For All!
solareagle writes "Venezuelan President Maduro has declared war on 'bourgeois parasites' by taking over Daka, an electronics retailer similar to Best Buy. USA Today reports, 'National guardsmen, some of whom had assault rifles, were positioned around outlets of [Daka] ... Maduro has ordered to lower prices or face prosecution. Thousands of people lined up at the Daka stores hoping for a bargain after the government forced the companies to charge "fair" prices. "I want a Sony plasma television for the house," said Amanda Lisboa, 34, a business administrator who waited seven hours outside a Caracas store ... "It's going to be so cheap!" "This is for the good of the nation," Maduro said, referring to the military's occupation of Daka. "Leave nothing on the shelves, nothing in the warehouses Let nothing remain in stock!" Maduro said his seizures are the 'tip of the iceberg' and that other stores would be next if they did not comply with his orders.'"
can you then tell are the "fair" prices high enough that they can restock or did venezuela just fuck up over-the-table electronics retailing for good in the country?
if the prices are't high enough then it's a short term robbery solution really..
I mean who the fuck would officially import ANYTHING to the country after this if they might e forced to sell the inventory at a lower price than what they paid for it...
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I remember all the morons on Slashdot who thought Chavez was the best thing since sliced bread and wanted the U.S. to follow in his footsteps.
The World Social Forum — yes, it is just what it sounds like, plenty of Ayn Rand detractors, to put it mildly — once declared Hugo Chavez a "guest of honor". Yeah, they would support just such a government. Of course, when the take-overs (a.k.a. confiscations) begin in earnest, the weaker among them will try to forget it and lament, how this particular attempt at Communism "was not done right either" and how the next one — the one they'll undertake — will finally show the whole glory of the new order.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Oh, they will... Take it from a USSR survivor, there will be two groups of importers: official and otherwise.
The officially-imported electronics will be available in the government-run stores — for Sean Penn and other supporters of Socialism to see. No, ordinary people would not be able to buy anything there — you'd either need to have a special pass to enter the store, or have hard-currency (or some sort of government-issued coupons). Though the prices will be denominated in Bolivars, you'll have to exchange your foreign currency right there — at the official rate...
The unofficially imported stuff will be sold on the black market, which the government will fight tooth and nail — thus providing law-enforcement with easy side-income (that is likely to exceed their official salary). The corruption will, well, corrupt the entire population — and the law-enforcement in particular — for generations to come. The actual businessmen bothering with such imports will be denounced as "speculators" — by contrasting their prices with those of the government stores (described above).
A grey area will be represented by people, who purchase their own stuff abroad. They would, probably, be allowed such items — perhaps, after paying some customs fee — and even permitted to sell them (used). As long, as of course, they don't attempt to profit from such sales...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
In 30 years, current Venezuela will be held as the prime example of how they ran a thinly-veiled dictatorship while the rest of the world looked the other side and refused to call a spade a spade. It takes lots of guts to call "democracy" a country where critics of the government never appear on live, unedited TV. It takes lots of guts to call "democracy" a country where the president forcefully takes control of the media airwaves every day. It takes lots of guts to call "democracy" a country where the government openly threatens its workers with dismissal if they're found to be voting "for the counter-revolution". It takes lots of guts to call "democracy" a country where the next election day (Dec.8) has been officially declared "Day of Fealty to Chavez".
No, it has been in a death spiral for a while now.
The country is spending money like crazy while keeping their money printing presses running around the clock. Read the line in the article, "Venezuela's central bank said the country's money supply grew 70% in the past year." The currency is collapsing due to stupidity and power-grabs in government.
Many countries have seen this sort of thing happen, and it is not pretty. Wheelbarrows of money to buy bread, only accepting payment in foreign currency, and financial collapse are common with this scenario that is playing right now.
Zimbabwe did this about a decade ago as the currency collapsed. Collectors picked up the trillion dollar notes that were printed at the end of the collapse and worth practically nothing. I hope it doesn't happen but part of me thinks it would be fun to collect a billion bolivar note from the country if/when the collapse happens.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
I know what her _philosophy_ is because I've read scholarly publications on it,
Then you know what her detractors have to say about it. You yourself remain smugly ignorant of her actual philosophy.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Funny how the definition of socialism changed over the years. First it was social ownership of everything with no private property. Then it was central planning of the industry with some made up price system that never worked like the various schemes Soviet Union came up with (usually followed by a famine). Then it was the "third way" of countries like Yugoslavia (at the time it was briefly prosperous before the collapse) with a mix of state owned industry and some small scale private enterprise. Now it's basically a capitalist economy like Sweden with a slightly higher taxes than in the US and more welfare spending. Pretty soon you guys will finally be driven all the way to the right and call laissez-faire capitalism "socialism".
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
Nationalization has been a major fiasco.
You are being disingenuous, or are merely ignorant of the wider context (IMHO). You can't debate this subject honestly without seriously discussing the CIA and USA's role in attempting a violent overthrow of Chavez, early in his widely accepted as legitimate democratic leadership. Something the USA is famous for. I'm thinking right now that some machiavellian elite of the USA are probably pretty happy with being able to drive a country to insanity and suffering the way it appears they are succeeding in driving Venezuela (or this is all some B.S. slashdot twisting of reality, but I come here for the philisophical debate that results). Sort of like that line in Hotel Rwanda explaining how some elites convinced two sets of natives to be racist against one another based on their nose shape or something. Divide and Conquer. Or the machiavellian move here- fuck with other countries leaders- not kill them mind you- but just keep on fucking with them in order to get their country to be weaker so that you can perpetually dominate them.
It's a jungle out there kids... Good Luck.
You see, I'm not even solid middle class, though I have a degree that took me 8 years to get because I had to work to pay for college. I have a job and I *still don't make as much money* as some leech that's living off welfare. I am angry because despite working my ass off and getting an education I can't get off the ground. Instead, we get laws that protect criminals, leeches and corrupts. Chavistas have been "attempting to do something" for 15 years by now. Obviously, they have no idea what they are doing, and in the process we live in a country which minimun wage is around 50 bucks. An underage girl who gets pregnant by a killer who's in jail and lives with her grandmother makes more money than, say, an engineer. I understand she might need it, but this country is raising a generation of people who don't want to work for a living, because they want to suck off the government, who, fishing for votes, encourages it. TL;DR: I'm not, and you're talking bullcrap you have no idea about.
Oblivion Awaits