It appears even Venezuelan socialists can figure it out sooner or later:
Venezuela Backs Away From Price Controls as Citizens Go Hungry
CARACAS, Venezuela—President Nicolás Maduro’s government has begun dismantling price controls, a major policy shift that aims to ease widespread unrest by letting shops sell food at market prices but is worsening Venezuela’s already punishing inflation. . .
“Before there was nothing; now there’s everything,” said Jesús Barrios, 36, as he shopped in Maracaibo, the state capital of Zulia.
Funny how price signals and markets work that way.
“We consulted with the president in view that the shelves were empty and people were demanding” food, Francisco Arias Cárdenas, governor of Zulia, told a local newspaper there several weeks ago.
Ending price controls has started to ease the chronic shortages that have resulted in more than half of Venezuelan families skipping meals, according to recent polls. In cities where the controls have been lifted, including Maracaibo and Puerto Ordaz, the long lines of shoppers that snaked outside every store have shortened. Looting of markets and food trucks—a daily occurrence just a few months ago—were down one-third nationwide in August from a May high, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict, a nonprofit group. . .
The phasing out of the price controls is already hitting black-market dealers who have been reselling shoppers marked-up products they obtained at government-set prices.
Also this:
As it ends price controls in the provinces, the government is also playing favorites by handing out subsidized food to ruling-party loyalists.
Funny how socialism always seems to work that way.
Now if only we could get our home-grown socialists to learn this. Start with a certain member of Congress from Queens.
Chaser:
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