Posted on 03/08/2015 2:24:16 PM PDT by 9thLife
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela will begin installing some 20,000 fingerprint scanners at supermarkets nationwide in a bid to stamp out hoarding and panic buying, which the government blames for long lines and widespread shortages of basic goods.
...
On Saturday, President Nicolas Maduro said that seven large private retail chains had voluntarily agreed to install the scanners.
"I ask for the the comprehension of all of Venezuela, to understand this problem, because there is a lot of manipulation taking place," Maduro said at the inauguration of a state-run supermarket.
Economists say the effort is bound to fail. They blame decade-old price controls for destroying local manufacturing and attracting smugglers who can resell the goods on the black market and in Colombia for huge gains.
In recent days, those profits have become juicier as a result of Venezuela's tanking currency. The bolivar has slid 35 percent in the past two weeks on the black market and now trades at nearly one-fortieth the official rate used to import food, according to DolarToday, a website that tracks the illegal rate based on currency trades along the border.
The fall of world oil prices by nearly half since November is also diminishing the supply of dollars available to import everything from milk to cars. Crude oil accounts for 95 percent of Venezuela's exports.
As Venezuela's economic crisis deepens the government is increasingly lashing out at its opponents and the United States, which it says is trying to sow instability and set the stage for a coup.
But many Venezuelans point to Maduro. Recent polls say the embattled president has a 22 percent approval rating, the lowest since the start of the socialist revolution 16 years ago by the late President Hugo Chavez ...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Sean Penn in 2014:
“President Maduro inherited a lot of the growing pains that were left, and the problems that came of a country largely forced into paranoia, largely forced into certain relationships that maybe are distasteful,” Penn said. He added that Maduro is similar to Chavez in that he is “in love with his people and his country.” When he was asked if he thought the Venezuelan people were in love with Maduro, Penn said it was important to “be careful.” “Are they demonstrating in Venezuela over oppression, or are they demonstrating because they’re on economic hard times? It’s the latter,” Penn insisted. “We’re all on economic hard times.”
In other news: President Maduro reports that his government is addressing the acute shortage of finger scanners in the country
[ ...he causes all the receive a mark, and whoever does not have the mark cannot buy or sell...etc. etc. etc. Still scoffing? ]
It is almost like history is cyclical and the bible is trying to tell us this fact.....
We are currently in the age of Noah / Babbel...
Please sir. I want some more.....
The usurper is taking notes.
Bingo!
Wild takes on the scripture deserve to be scoffed at sometimes.
When does Obama start giving all Venezuelans the Earned Income Tax Credit?
While he’s at it he can give it to the Cubans too.
Can’t let his comrades down.
As long as the socialist kings can go shop in capitalist countries, they don’t care about the pain at home.
They deal in hate, not in love.
Kind of like the way neither US Congress nor the Supreme Court nor the President even has to worry about Obamacare compliance, to see the situation from a viewpoint of skin in the game. They’re excused.
Beat me as long as you beat the fat cats (except it’s with a whip made of cotton candy in the latter case and I don’t know it).
True. by now the president of whatever chain is a maduro thug.
Is buying more than 2 rolls of toilet paper hoarding?
Incredible the country is broke yet this idiot is going to spend a few million dollars to install finger print trackers.
First thought in my brain, too. Many scoffed 30-50 years ago. No more. It’s being done as we speak.
“I see it as a cautionary tale for the whole world.”
Do you think Frank the Pope will learn from this?
No matter how destitute, there’s alway room in the budget for the latest in high tech surveillance and advanced security in a tyrannical state.
what i dont understand is that there are people in V that have lived in good times before this socialism set in. Why don’t these people rise up? They know their country can do better, yet they are willing to sit back and let the govt destroy their country.
Does anyone really believe that these devices will be connected to anything?
Venezuela has an average IQ of 84.
They will not solve this on their own. Colonization or a return to the stone age are their options.
Could be asked about a lot of socialist regimes. They are some combination of scared, brainwashed, stupid, waiting for the right moment, busy trying to survive, etc. Here's just one simple example from Wikipedia: "n January 2013, 50 documents were leaked by the "right-leaning" Analisis24 showing that SEBIN had been spying on "private information on prominent Venezuelan Jews, local Jewish organizations and Israeli diplomats in Latin America". Some info that was gathered by SEBIN operations included office photos, home addresses, passport numbers and travel itineraries..."
Rampant capitalism is causing shortages. What Venezuela needs is socialism. Oh wait....
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