Venezuela
Reaches the Final Stage of Socialism: No Toilet Paper, by David Boaz 4/515
In 1990 I went
to a Cato Institute conference in what was then still the Soviet
Union. We were told to bring our own toilet paper, which was in fact useful
advice. Now, after only 16 years of Chavista rule, Venezuela has demonstrated
that “Socialism of the 21st Century” is pretty much like socialism in the
20th century.
Fusion reports: Venezuela’s product shortages have
become so severe that some hotels in that country are asking guests to bring
their own toilet paper and soap, a local tourism industry spokesman said on
Wednesday….
“It’s an extreme situation,” says Xinia Camacho, owner of a 20-room
boutique hotel in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada national park. “For over a
year we haven’t had toilet paper, soap, any kind of milk, coffee or sugar. So
we have to tell our guests to come prepared.”…
Montilla says bigger hotels can circumvent product shortages by buying
toilet paper and other basic supplies from black market smugglers who charge up
to 6-times the regular price. But smaller, family-run hotels can’t always
afford to pay such steep prices, which means that sometimes they have to make
do without.
Camacho says she refuses to buy toilet paper from the black market on
principle. “In the black market you have to pay 110 bolivares [$0.50] for a
roll of toilet paper that usually costs 17 bolivares [$ 0.08] in the
supermarket,” Camacho told Fusion. “We don’t want to participate in the
corruption of the black market, and I don’t have four hours a day to line up
for toilet paper” at a supermarket….
Recently, Venezuelan officials have been stopping people from transporting
essential goods across the country in an effort to stem the flow of contraband. So now Camacho’s guests could
potentially have their toilet paper confiscated before they even make it to the
hotel.
Shortages, queues, black markets, and official theft. And blaming the CIA. Yes, Venezuela has truly achieved
socialism.
But what I never understood is this: Why toilet paper? How hard is it to
make toilet paper? I can understand a socialist economy having trouble
producing decent cars or computers. But toilet paper? And soap? And matches?
Sure, it’s been said that if you tried communism in the
Sahara, you’d get a shortage of sand. Still, a shortage of paper seems like a
real achievement.
http://www.cato.org/blog/venezuela-reaches-final-stage-socialism-no-toilet-paper
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