Venezuela is now the most expensive country in the world; hands down
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Source: ValueWalk
October 7, 2015
Caracas, Venezuela
Forget Norway. Japan. Iceland. Switzerland. Or any of the other places around the world that are notorious for being painful on the wallet.
Venezuela is now the most expensive country in the world, hands down.
To give you an idea, the cost of a 15-minute taxi ride to the beach yesterday afternoon totaled an eye-popping $158.
(I paid less than that to rent a helicopter in Colombia last week.)
With all of its vast mineral resources, Venezuela should be the most prosperous country in Latin America by far. And it once was.
But years of corruption, incompetence, and central planning have taken their toll.
Normally, when huge companies like Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) extract oil out of the ground, they reinvest a portion of their profits back into improving their operations for the future.
They spend money on more infrastructure, technology, and exploration. In short, they invest in the future.
But in Venezuela, guys like Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro spent years funneling oil revenues into idiotic social programs designed to keep themselves in power.
Read more: http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/10/venezuela-prices-explode/
Chavista fanatics coming in to say it's all an economic sabotage backed by the US/CIA/illuminati in 3, 2, 1...
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Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)The old local currency actually paid then converted to American currency at officially pegged currency exchange rates ploy. Being dishonest to make a point only makes the point dishonest.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-19/venezuela-the-country-with-four-exchange-rates
(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela can simultaneously be the world’s cheapest and most expensive country because of its multiple exchange rate systems. A dinner at an upscale restaurant, including drinks, can cost as little as $6 per person or as much as $160, depending on how you do the math. Figuring out the tip isn’t any easier.
The creation of a new alternative exchange rate this month, which led to a 70 percent devaluation, has left foreign companies operating in Venezuela with a dilemma. Do they try to pull their money out at the new weaker exchange rate or hold on, waiting for the stronger rate they were promised by the government?
Judi Lynn
(160,449 posts)
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)is the truly sad issue here.
You are so invested in that corrupt govt that you can't bring yourself to admit that the revolution has failed due to govt corruption and ineptness.
The state of the Venezuelan economy, crime rate, the crumbling infrastructure isn't the fault of the US/CIA, as you and others like to claim, it's because of reasons stated above.
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)It doesn't mention the explanation behind the price tag. For example, nobody can buy USD at 6.30 BsF. Calculated at the black market price (800 BsF/USD), the cost is just $1.25. Most likely, if you bring dollars to Venezuela you can sell them anywhere between 400 to 800 BsF/USD, so the taxi would be more than affordable.
However, if you are local and make minimum wage, that taxi ride would cost you about 14% of your monthly salary, which gives you an idea of Venezuelans' lack of purchasing power. You would need close to 8 minimum monthly salaries to be able to afford the basic basket.
And as for that Bloomberg article,...
The creation of a new alternative exchange rate this month, which led to a 70 percent devaluation, has left foreign companies operating in Venezuela with a dilemma. Do they try to pull their money out at the new weaker exchange rate or hold on, waiting for the stronger rate they were promised by the government?
You actually posted this up yourself. Did you even read the article you yourself posted?
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Index Info
Consumer Price Index (Excl.Rent): 69.75
Rent Index: 23.48
Groceries Index: 87.85
Restaurants Index: 56.36
Consumer Price Plus Rent Index: 47.18
Local Purchasing Power: 15.80
Local purchasing power lags the cost index, so I think this is a better measurement of local cost to the locals in local currency, not taxi fares.
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)Read the bloody Bloomberg article that you yourself posted. Try living in Venezuela with minimum wage earning only Bolivares. Let me know how that goes for ya.
Just so you know, I sure as hell know more about it than you, having friends and family there and all, and being Venezuelan myself 
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)puzzling outrage.
Being "from Cuba" also would not make that person a expert on the Cuban economy.
Where you and your friends and family living the minimum local wage?
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)For the upcoming elections, all polls say that Chavismo barely has 30% support and the opposition has over 40%.
I know it must be really hard for you to accept that your fantasy of the "Bolivarian Revolution" has turned out to be an utter embarrassment in the history books. And I'm sorry even more that you refuse to look at the facts that say so:
The minimum wage in venezuela actually is 7.421,68BsF, and the dollar actually at 718BsF per dollar according to https://twitter.com/DolarToday (the black market dolar page for venezuelans.) You can calculate the minimum wage in dollars, which is about 10.33$ per month. So if I want to buy an iphone 6 in Venezuela, I have to work for 60 months without spending a dollar.
Tell me again how this is a sustainable economic model.
All I'm doing is simply pointing out the failure of Chavismo, which is leaving my home country in ruin, which is something that you, Judy, and several others in this site find very hard to accept because of your ideological blindness. But listen, it's OK to admit you were wrong, alright? We're here for ya! 
brooklynite
(94,310 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)Its quite sad, but as you already see, thats the way it is for a tiny, tiny few around here. It used to be worse, but as time has gone by the vast majority have realized what a sad disaster the country has become in the past 15+ years.
I hope your family & friends either have a way out or a way to fend for themselves
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)I think it's important to give the details behind the topic at hand. Not all DUers have been researching Venezuela (and I mean ACTUALLY researching through multiple accounts and outlets, not propaganda mouthpieces like Telesur or VenezuelaAnalysis or Eva Golinger) to know exactly how one of the richest countries in the hemisphere has turned into a global embarrassment.
enid602
(8,593 posts)The problem is that locals must buy most necessities on the black market, as the shelves in stores are bare.
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)If I can make a pack of toilet paper and sell it for 5.00 and be happy.
If inflation hits, and I can still only sell it for 5 but my cost of supplies has trippled due to inflation, Ill just stop selling the toilet paper. If I make it in a foreign country, Ill sell it elsewhere, if I make it locally, Ill shut down the factory.
Or I sell some to the shopkeeper who then sells it on the black market where he can get more money, and never puts any on the shelf.
7962
(11,841 posts)by ANY educated analysis or observation. ANY
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)hangers-on who get dollars at the 'official' rate of 6 to $1.00 and can then turn around and sell them for 700 per dollar. Not so much for the 'beneficiaries' of the bolivarian 'revolution' who are trying to get by with a minimum salary of about $10 dollars.
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)The average Venezuelan living in Caracas earns nowehere near the same as the average resident in Manhattan (which is the only way these indices would be at all valid?). And, even assuming that this was accurate, the Venezuelan paying about 88% for his groceries (compared to the resident of NYC) isn't a 'low cost of living', nor is it when his local purchasing power is at just 16% of that of the NYC resident.
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)These fanatics won't ever understand basic math, and they're so ideologically blinded that the only way they'll accept they were wrong is if they themselves get a taste of the "patria" of living in Venezuela, as a Venezuelan, earning Venezuelan currency. But even then, I doubt it myself that they'll stop supporting Chavismo. They'll probably come up with some bullshit excuse claiming that the economic ruin was brought by a CIA-backed economic "sabotage" or something (whatever that means) because, you know, CHILE 1973!!!
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)they'd be scared to death and jump on the first flight home. But we know that's not going to happen - they perfer to comfort themselves with the romantic notions of the Gran Revolucion Socialista they keep telling themselves exists en Vz. and limit themselves to lecturing people who actually know something about the country from actual experience.
Yallow
(1,926 posts)An American will be in grave danger.
My wife is from Venezuela.
Her family said it was not safe for me to visit.
Every single person they know understand how much damage
Chavez, and Maduro have done.
It is a disaster, getting worse every day.
Except if you are one of Maduro's buddies, and you get the gravy
while the rest can't even get an Arepa.
My Venezuelan friends who still live there have had to sign loyalty oaths to keep their jobs.
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)At least that's what our resident Chavez idolators think.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)Otherwise, you're just making false accusations based on unsupported assumptions, in which case, you should probably stop talking since you're not contributing to the conversation and are only trying to drag this down to a personal quarrel.
Also, at least I have facts and numbers backing my claims. What do you have? Propaganda BS from Telesur?
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Although taxi driving in Venezuela seems to be a way to make an excellent living at those rates!
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)Or are you calling me a liar?
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)Last edited Sat Oct 10, 2015, 06:38 AM - Edit history (1)
But I was there during summer of last year.
I myself went to the grocery stores and saw almost entire aisles empty. You couldn't find milk, for example.
As for previous experiences...
Even though I have never been through it myself, I have had friends and family threatened at gunpoint by a random motorcyclist that passed by them threatening to shoot them if they didn't open the window. One of them recently was actually injured by the assailant with their gun's stock.
A girl from my high school class was fucking murdered the year after we graduated by a club to the head by some scumbags who wanted to rob her even though she didn't have anything of value on her (the scumbags didn't believe her, of course) while she was just walking to get some bread from the local bakery to bring back home. A funeral was held, and most of my class, and many teachers were there.
Every few weeks there would be blackouts that affected half of Caracas and every so often there would be water shortages (and this is the freaking CAPITAL. Can't imagine how much worse they must have it in the rest of the country.)
And this is nothing compared to what I keep hearing from everybody else I keep in touch with back home.
So yeah, I do fucking think I've had more taste of Chavez's "patria" than you ever could.
Judi Lynn
(160,449 posts)He wanted them to shoot at him?
Does that make sense?
Maybe he wanted them to open their hearts! But then, they were oligarchs. Did he ever get a wrong number. I'm surprised he drove away instead of hanging around and terrorizing you, like the filthy oligarchs' children and hired thugs do during their "guarimbas," which means "violent protests," which has been going on since Hugo Chavez took office.
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)Anyway, most murders in Venezuela are caused by violent gang bangers and thugs. And the majority of victims from the protests last year were mostly opposition, and they were mostly shot by national guard and Chavista thugs. Please don't talk about shit you clearly don't know anything about and stop believing the BS from Telesur and VenezuelaAnalysis.
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)You use American English idiomatic phrases perfectly, with none of the typical mistakes made by native Spanish speakers generally or Venezuelans in particular. You don't even use the overly formal or stilted phrasing typical of second language speakers who get everything else right.
That's HIGHLY UNUSUAL.
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)Plus I watch a lot of movies and tv shows in English, so needless to say, I've been exposed to English quite a lot throughout my whole life and starting at a young age
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)Normally people who learn English even earlier than you did (from preschool on, when their brains are better wired to pick up a language) make mistakes that are the result of thinking in a differently structured language. They mess up certain plurals, verb tenses, and of course English is littered with traps in terms of idiomatic phrases and highly conditioned rules.
In the other direction English speakers tend to make a hash of inflected languages and languages with gendered nouns, because we don't think that way.
Your English is very typical of an American English native speaker from the West Coast, which is doubly odd since you learned English in Florida. Maybe it's all that TV.
MADem
(135,425 posts)If you don't, it's cheaper to open your wallet to wipe your ass than try to find toilet paper on the shelves in the supermart.
Shortages and violence and complete, unbridled corruption -- that's the legacy of "Manuro."
JEFF9K
(1,935 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)Or the fact that you don't even read the articles you yourself post.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)I admire the social democracies of Scandinavia and other European countries that actually found a balance between free market capitalism and socialist policies. Venezuela is certainly not a socialist nation, it's nothing more now than a country run by a bunch of thugs who use the guise of socialism while they amass millions in personal fortunes.
Judi Lynn
(160,449 posts)It doesn't take long for them to start taking pot shots at them, however, claiming it's because of SOCIALISM that Sweden has such a high suicide rate, a clumsy, and stupid assertion made here by a Free Republic super star.
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)Yallow
(1,926 posts)Go for it.
Welcome to Venezuela jail.
Only Maduro's buddies get the gravy.
I just got back from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Dolar Blue (black market rate) is $15 to the peso, vs the official rate of $9. The government is well aware of the black market, but tourists can purchase pesos with USD on the street. The government looks the other way.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)enid602
(8,593 posts)Yes.
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)
ish of the hammer
(444 posts)exxon may invest in it's own future, but never for the country (or state).
ON a "democratic" oriented site. oh, ok, I get it now, A JOKE !
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)there are people who call themselves Democrats AND carry water for giant corporations that are destroying the planet.
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)there are people here who call themselves Democrats AND carry water for a corrupt govt that are destroying their own country.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)certain places in this country, like Johnson County, Kansas, or Santa Fe, New Mexico, are so expensive that no one can possibly live there. Weirdly enough, I moved in 2008 from Johnson Country, Kansas, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I can report that neither place is so expensive as to be totally depopulated.
I will point out that I've never been to Venezuela, so any comparison to other places may not be valid.
Judi Lynn
(160,449 posts)[center]
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GGJohn
(9,951 posts)your favorite, Eva Golinger?
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)has been on Washington's hit list since the day Chavez decided he wanted a bigger cut of the country's oil revenues. The rest is a result of reduced oil prices and centuries of oligarchic rule.
EX500rider
(10,798 posts)No, the rest is due to central planning, poorly thought out currency controls and price fixing plus rampant corruption, the worlds worst inflation and one of the top murder rates on the planet.
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)and simplistic narrative, Venezuela's social and economic problems did not begin with Hugo Chavez.
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)him (and his half-wit successor).
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)interests that will not rest until there is 'regime change' there. The question is which is the chicken and which is the egg?
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)rest until there is regime change."
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)your claim?
EX500rider
(10,798 posts)sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)EX500rider
(10,798 posts)We have nothing to do with moronic price and currency controls which drive the inflation. We have nothing to do with seizure of foreign assets drying up investment. We have nothing to do with out of control murder rates 10x's worse then the US. We have nothing to do with rampant corruption or cronyism or brain drain. All 100% home grown problems.
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)coup or a war in Latin or South American in more than a century we haven't had something to do with.
Zorro
(15,722 posts)sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)determine that the belligerents lacked the resources to open up a front exploitable by the Axis powers, it elected not to divert resources there since none of its interests were threatened and it was otherwise occupied. But, you have made a good point.
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)when all oil revenues belong to the Venezuelan government? Or don't you know that Venezuela nationalized its oil more than 20 years ago, before Chavez?
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)there was huge investment and control over PDVSA by foreign interests. It was a de facto private company, owned by Venezuelan elites. The trouble started when Chavez actually brought it under state control.
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)incredible misinformation?
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)Latin America and indeed the world as a governmental agency that actually functioned as a business is supposed to) was to fire the competent people who had made a career in PDVSA and replace them with technically illiterate political followers whose only real task was to completely screw things up and loot the company. They succeeded admirably. Begining with Chavez investment in the oil infrastructure dried up and maintenance of existing equipment was kicked down the road until 'better times'. So Venezuela now not only has the problem of the bottom falling out of the price of oil - it also has severely declining production because of mismanagement, neglect, fraud and thievery in PDVSA. Almost sounds like PDVSA as you describe it prior to Chavez.
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)that has drawn a somewhat different conclusion, although some of your points are affirmed. I found it interesting. Hope you do too. The problem I always have with these arguments is the demonization of the Chavez government as though the country was some kind of utopia before it was elected and all the problems since are its fault. That simply doesn't wash.
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/74
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)the exception. But I have a problem with folks who are so invested in the philosophical concept of a socialist
revolution in Venezuela that they are incapable of accepting the disastrous effects that regime has had on the economy and thereby the people of Venezuela.
Venezuela pre-Chavez undoubtedly had multiple problems, and lots of them. But in general terms Venezuela was at that point a very wealthy country (particularly by Latin American standards) and the populace enjoyed aspects of daily living like supermarkets and stores full to the brim with consumer articles of every type and cost. The national currency (Bolivar) was coveted by people in frontier countries and was a model of stability. Venezuelans had easy access to dollars to import goods for commerce and for personal reasons, and to travel abroad. Medical care, especially in Caracas was top-notch and hospitals were abundant and very well supplied and run. Pharmaceutical products, particularly prescription drugs were readily available at very low cost. Security was very good and Venezuela had a thriving night life. Electricity, the one weak link in the picture was in the process of being reformed - in fact prior to Chavez the important tourist island of Margarita got its first real generating plant and, for the first time ever had reliable electricity. The same program was to be extended throughout Venezuela in the following four years.
It requires a special type of political blindness to pretend that all these - and many, many more - haven't suffered greatly under Chavez and his 'successor'. Stores are habitually short of (if not completely out of) some of the most basic consumer items, and for those 'available' government interference and rationing means that people must wait in interminable lines to have even a chance to purchase them. The currency is rapidly approaching the Zimbabwe level with the government running the printing presses 24/7 to try and stave off economic collapse, all the while maintaining a fictitious exchange rate of 6.3 Bolivares to one $US while the free market pegs one Dollar at around 800 Bolivares. Those with influence in the government are able to access the sweetheart 6.3 to one rate to buy dollars which they turn around and sell for 700 or so Bolivares, reaping an obscene profit. The average Venezuelan OTO who wants to buy any item denominated in dollars must scrimp and save months. Hospitals throughout Venezuela are reporting alarming shortages of basic supplies particularly surgical supplies and are being forced to 'reuse' disposable items. Pharmaceutical drugs are so unavailable that doctors are counseling their patients to try and obtain Veterinary versions of these. Security has disintegrated to the point where Caracas is one of the most unsafe cities in the world. Gangs control huge sectors of Caracas and work their will by extorting the populace and engaging in all types of criminal activity. Electric service is haphazard with no hope of being improved. And the Petroleum Sector, the only part of the economy generating income is being hammered by 1) decline in world-wide oil prices and 2) deterioration of the entire system due to chronic lack of maintenance and investment during the Chavez-Maduro regime.
While not all of the problems in Venezuela are the present regime's fault, a great many of them can be directly laid at their doorstep. All the sympathy for or unjustified admiration of that regime can't make that fact disappear.
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)http://www.el-nacional.com/economia/Salario-minimo-Venezuela-llega-dolares_0_673732873.html
NobodyHere
(2,810 posts)COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)right on this site!
Throd
(7,208 posts)He was anti-Western and anti-Capitalist, so that was good enough for some around here. Anyone who pointed out that he ran an incompetent and corrupt system based on cronyism and repression was dismissed as a CIA tool. The fan club's ideology was more important than the lives of actual Zimbabweans.
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)And especially after his recent "We are not gay" remarks. Sure as hell ain't a progressive leader, that's for sure. And Maduro and co. are no different
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Going on 35 years.
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)They can rule without any real opposition for however long they wish so long as the military and armed thugs back them. And if they buy off the other essential state institutions such as the Supreme Court, of course. I fear Venezuela's going the same way with Chavismo.
TexasTowelie
(111,912 posts)Statement of Purpose
Post the latest news from reputable mainstream news websites and blogs. Important news of national interest only. No analysis or opinion pieces. No duplicates. News stories must have been published within the last 12 hours. Use the published title of the story as the title of the discussion thread.
This piece was published on October 7 and was posted on October 9 which exceeds the 12 hour window for LBN.
