Posted on 02/24/2018 10:26:29 AM PST by blam
Those who are unfamiliar with Venezuela’s unprecedented economic collapse might be surprised to learn that the country’s oil production has only slowed, even as the price of a barrel of crude has risen in most international markets.
Unsurprisingly (it’s Venezuela), there’s a macabre explanation for this phenomenon: The workers at PDVSA – Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, which once showered Venezuelans with oil wealth – are literally collapsing due to hunger and exhaustion as workers defy their government handlers and flee their jobs in their desperation as the value of their pay has been completely erased.
Bloomberg spoke with several workers in Venezuela’s oil industry about the harsh conditions they face on a daily basis.
Of course, oil workers aren’t the only ones suffering: The situation in Venezuela is getting so dire that ordinary Venezuelans are losing tons of body weight because of the food shortages. Many can no longer afford to buy meat.
One worker told Bloomberg about how his weekly salary barely pays for the corn flour he mixes with water and drinks every morning.
At 6:40 a.m., Pablo Ruiz squats at the gate of a decaying refinery in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, steeling himself for eight Sisyphean hours of brushing anti-rust paint onto pipes under a burning sun. For breakfast, the 55-year-old drank corn-flour water.
Ruiz’s weekly salary of 110,000 bolivares — about 50 cents at the black-market exchange rate — buys him less than a kilo of corn meal or rice. His only protein comes from 170 grams of canned tuna included in a food box the government provides to low-income families. It shows up every 45 days or so.
“I haven’t eaten meat for two months,” he said. “The last time I did, I spent my whole week’s salary on a chicken meal.”
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at shtfplan.com ...
Our state has failed in many ways. There is no security, there is no food production system, and the economy collapsed a long time ago. Under these conditions, anyone with the smallest bit of power will do everything they can to keep their life quality. Stealing medicines in the shipments in Customs, openly stealing from law-abiding citizens, taking their cellphones, or anything that could be exchanged for some food, alcohol, or other stuff. This is the current situation here, and I am not sweetening anything.
(snip)
I feel sorry for these people. I know many will say it’s their own fault but I don’t buy that at all.
Life in yet another Socialist Workers Paradise.
I do too. People under Communism or Socialism are just forced to live by those systems.
“I know many will say it’s their own fault but I don’t buy that at all.”
You should. They voted for it. Now they’re getting it.
L
When you don’t have guns and can’t fight back, it’s what happens.
Sure wish there was some way to instantly transport several million Snowflakes to Venezuela for a couple of months and then ask them if they’d like to come back to the “horrible, capitalistic, US”. Perhaps then they would appreciate what Socialism/Communism really has to offer.
Ping.
They need to do what we did in 1776.
Thanks blam. We should help them out by bombing the Iranian missiles, advanced fighter and their hangars, and Kalishnikov factory.
Now you’re Vegan ,LOL
This situation is totally precedented. Entirely precedented. Completely I-f&$@ing-warned-you-this-would-happen-a-dozen-times precedented. What are they on about writing something like that?
LOL!!
It coming, count on it. Salvador Allende tried the same thing in Chile during the 1970’s, nationalizing most industries and collectivizing its farms. He destroyed the country in less than 3 years and ended up committing suicide when the coup reached his doorstep. I see a similar series of events going on in Venezuela right now.
Well, a meat free diet is really better for them, better for the planet, better for their carbon footprint.
They didn’t vote for it. The face a cheat and kerfluffle enemy with control of all the levers of power. They have tried to shrug the communists off. They have tried to force the communists off. The communists remain attached like an octopus. Their fate could be ours.
Thats gotta suck.
I'm with you 100%. I hear people mocking them and it makes me sick. Starvation is not funny.
Evidently the people of Venezuela are undeserving of the generous socialist system created by their wise leaders.
Oh well, the genuine equality of the grave awaits us all.
The fruits of faithfully implemented socialism.
I’d love to think this could never happen here - but look at the number of people who would have at least considered voting for Bernie Sanders.
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