In shortages-hit Venezuela, lining up becomes a profession

reuters.com ^ | Jan 21, 2015 | Andrew Cawthorne

[Berlin_Freeper]

There's a booming new profession in Venezuela: standing in line.

The job usually involves starting before dawn, enduring long hours under the Caribbean sun, dodging or bribing police, and then selling a coveted spot at the front of huge shopping lines.

As Venezuela's ailing economy spawns unprecedented shortages of basic goods, panic-buying and a rush to snap up subsidized food, demand is high and the pay is reasonable.

"It's boring but not a bad way to make a living," said a 23-year-old man, who only gave his first name Luis, as he held a spot near the front of a line of hundreds outside a state supermarket just after sunrise in Caracas.

[Crazieman]

Ahh capitalism. Wherever it may find a spot of dirt to spring forth.

[Berlin_Freeper]

People’s lives now revolve around standing in lines. They sleep on the streets to be the first in line to buy car batteries, laundry soap, tampons, and milk.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who skipped his own state of the union speech for a desperate world tour in search of loans or promises of $100 oil. He got neither,

[Berlin_Freeper]

Governors in three Venezuelan states have banned overnight queuing

[Berlin_Freeper]

863 different exotic-tasting ice creams.

[Berlin_Freeper]

"It's a strategically planned war...also aimed at Venezuela, to try and destroy our revolution and cause an economic collapse".

[WayneS]

My thoughts exactly.

[MasterGunner01]

It never ceases to amaze that people that champion using government coercion to rob Peter to pay Paul wind up impoverishing Peter AND Paul in the process. The greed and resentment of some people who envy anyone with one dollar or peso more than they have is mind boggling.

It would never occur to the permanently aggrieved to use their individual effort and energy to get the rewards they seek. No, they want some faceless government bureaucrat to steal it from the productive of society and give it to them because they “need” it. The problem is their “needs” are never satisfied and the demand is for more and more. The result, in the end, is less and less for everyone except the well connected in the government.

[MrB]

They made it illegal to “line up” because it points out the failures of the State policy.

What’s the term? Sic semper tyrannus? “As it always is with tyrants”?

[MrB]

Some are motivated by “I need it”,
but there are far too may motivated by “I don’t want him to have it”.

[RockyTx]

whole families do this.

take orders from others over the phone.
shuttle money around, while standing in line

stand in lines to buy anything

[ncpatriot]

Why don’t the people rebel?? I want to believe that N. Americans would - big time.

[thackney]

Share the wealth programs only share the poverty.

Wealth is created by work. Take away the incentive to work and the wealth goes away.

[jdsteel]

It's always the end result of Marxism. Remember East Berlin and the old USSR? People would stand in lines forever. Meanwhile, stores for the party faithful would be stocked...but at prices non-party members couldn't afford.

[HotHunt]

I don't understand. Why can't Maduro just mandate that the store owners produce goods for their store shelves through executive order? Isn't this how their system works? What does it matter if there are no goods and, even if there were, they can't sell them for more than it cost them? I'm sure the store owners would love to run their businesses for free. This is, after all, socialism.

The system should work just fine if Maduro knew what he was doing. Maybe he should call Obama for some tips on running his country further into the ground. After all, he has no Hugo to turn to for expert advice.

[Kartographer]

So how long before the Line Standers Unionize?

[tophat9000]

doing my best Yakov Smirnoff takeoff

in America you line up 3 days for the Apple iPods
in Venezuela we line up 3 days for apples!

[MrB]

no guns

[Flick Lives]

First thing the government did was make sure people don’t have access to guns. Don’t want any counterrevolutionary action now, do we comrade?