6 ms·

This is horrible and it is even more horrible how people consider it a joke. For millions of people this means poverty, uncertainty, and suffering. Sitting smir

This is horrible and it is even more horrible how people consider it a joke. For millions of people this means poverty, uncertainty, and suffering. Sitting smirking on the outside and feeling good that you are not there is morally rotten. At least have some respect for the tragedy this is. And honestly, the first who blames it on the victim better never know how much they are wrong.

google234123 5y ago
Yep, there is no blame to go around, this entire situation is no different than a tragedy like a natural disaster... Or maybe the rest of us can learn something about socialism from this.
- amanaplanacanal 5y ago
  It doesn’t require socialism to hyperinflate your currency. Anybody can do it.
JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> the first who blames it on the victim better never know how much they are wrong Mocking the situation helps nobody. But Venezuelans had fair and free elections not that long ago. The precursors to these policies were wilfully elected into office by the populace. That confers at least some responsibility; more than in the cases of kings, colonisers, invaders or revolutionaries.
- jeromegv 5y ago
  Elections in Venezuela have been fraudulent for decades now.
  - google234123 5y ago
    Not extremely fraudulent, the gov still has a very large base . In 2017 70% of the population supported socialism: https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13251 https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13251
    - shkkmo 5y ago
      You seem to have confused several different things: Support for socialism, support for the ruling party, and legitimate elections. Venezuelan elections have been widely critized as shams and have been largely boycotted by opposition parties in Venezuela. Venezuela has significant oil wealth but has been ruled by a corrupt and autocratic single party for decades that has squandered and embezzled that wealth.
  - busymom0 5y ago
    Fun fact: it was only in 2012, when they took away private ownership and commercial sale of firearms and ammunition under the guise of “security and safety”: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18288430 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18288430 Never give up your right to bear arms Americans!
    - amanaplanacanal 5y ago
      Not sure how firearms would help the average Venezuelan in this case. Maybe they could use them to steal food?
      - codeecan 5y ago
        Its a lot harder for your government to become authoritarian when your citizens can shoot back
        tim333 5y ago
        I think the fact that Venezuelans had guns in 2012 but still had issues show that it's not foolproof.
        amanaplanacanal 5y ago
        Plus it seems like folks are willing to vote in the authoritarians on purpose, as long as they are my authoritarians and not your authoritarians.
- tshaddox 5y ago
  Were those secret ballot elections? If so, then you literally cannot possibly know who to blame, because you don’t know how anyone voted, and you certainly couldn’t blame anyone who voted for candidates who lost.
  - akvadrako 5y ago
    Secret ballot elections are the only ones you can trust which is why they are a stable of many democracies from the beginning. You can trust it because you have enough observers, whom are indeed important to select well (covering all the biases). They monitor the voting and counting to make cheating on a large scale a large conspiracy, which by definition must have large public support.
ReptileMan 5y ago
Six zeros removed from nothing is still nothing. I doubt that there are many people that will be really hit by it, because it is like rain in a tsunami.
- desine 5y ago
  A sad reality is how true this is. Anyone who had built up savings 10+ years ago was already completely wiped out. The situation will not significantly change with this adjustment. The day to day for the common citizen of Venezuela is the same: work as much as you can, and immediately convert your money into tangibles: food, sundries, tools if one can be lucky enough to afford them. These things will continue to increase in cost, wages will continue to increase at comparable rates. It's a trap where one has no choice but to continue producing and consuming, and the money is nothing more than a temporary stopover.
  - imtringued 5y ago
    >It's a trap where one has no choice but to continue producing and consuming, and the money is nothing more than a temporary stopover. You can always save in real assets. Why does everyone want to save in a promise that someone else will work for you?
    - desine 5y ago
      I don’t know but my other comment about a certain hard asset I save in got a couple downvotes. I chalk it up to ignorance being bliss. Nobody wants to think about how easily they can lose it all
matheusmoreira 5y ago
> it is even more horrible how people consider it a joke It is a joke. The world we live in is absurd. Government inflates its own currency so bad it wipes out the entire economy. Citizens are left holding worthless paper. That happened in my country too. It could happen in yours. Actually it's only a matter of time before it happens to every currency in the world: they're all inflationary. The solution? More of the same. Start from scratch by creating a new currency to inflate. This is exactly what they did. Multiple times. We either laugh at this insanity or we cry.
- Geee 5y ago
  There is obviously a solution, which is Bitcoin. It'll end this madness that has destroyed societies from the beginning of time.
  - matheusmoreira 5y ago
    Cryptocurrency? Perhaps. Technologically, bitcoin is a failure and not a solution to anything. Monero is a much better project. Also, it's perfectly possible to inflate bitcoin despite its fixed supply. It's possible to inflate any currency. Implement fractional reserve banking on top of it. New coins will be created through loans, inflating the currencies.
    - Geee 5y ago
      Why do you say that? Do you think that Bitcoin is too easy to stop for governments? Bitcoin is already used in lots of countries which suffer from inflation. It doesn't seem to be a failure. In El Salvador, there are more people with a bitcoin wallet than people with a bank account. More than 30% of people in Nigeria have used bitcoin. It's also popular in Venezuela. FRB is not a problem, because bitcoin can and should be owned non-custodially. Paper bitcoins created by a bank wouldn't be compatible with actual bitcoins, and wouldn't expand its supply.
      - matheusmoreira 5y ago

google234123 5y ago

Yep, there is no blame to go around, this entire situation is no different than a tragedy like a natural disaster... Or maybe the rest of us can learn something about socialism from this.

amanaplanacanal 5y ago
It doesn’t require socialism to hyperinflate your currency. Anybody can do it.

JumpCrisscross 5y ago

> the first who blames it on the victim better never know how much they are wrong Mocking the situation helps nobody. But Venezuelans had fair and free elections not that long ago. The precursors to these policies were wilfully elected into office by the populace. That confers at least some responsibility; more than in the cases of kings, colonisers, invaders or revolutionaries.

jeromegv 5y ago
Elections in Venezuela have been fraudulent for decades now.
- google234123 5y ago
  Not extremely fraudulent, the gov still has a very large base . In 2017 70% of the population supported socialism: https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13251 https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13251
  - shkkmo 5y ago
    You seem to have confused several different things: Support for socialism, support for the ruling party, and legitimate elections. Venezuelan elections have been widely critized as shams and have been largely boycotted by opposition parties in Venezuela. Venezuela has significant oil wealth but has been ruled by a corrupt and autocratic single party for decades that has squandered and embezzled that wealth.
- busymom0 5y ago
  Fun fact: it was only in 2012, when they took away private ownership and commercial sale of firearms and ammunition under the guise of “security and safety”: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18288430 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18288430 Never give up your right to bear arms Americans!
  - amanaplanacanal 5y ago
    Not sure how firearms would help the average Venezuelan in this case. Maybe they could use them to steal food?
    - codeecan 5y ago
      Its a lot harder for your government to become authoritarian when your citizens can shoot back
      - tim333 5y ago
        I think the fact that Venezuelans had guns in 2012 but still had issues show that it's not foolproof.
        amanaplanacanal 5y ago
        Plus it seems like folks are willing to vote in the authoritarians on purpose, as long as they are my authoritarians and not your authoritarians.
tshaddox 5y ago
Were those secret ballot elections? If so, then you literally cannot possibly know who to blame, because you don’t know how anyone voted, and you certainly couldn’t blame anyone who voted for candidates who lost.
- akvadrako 5y ago
  Secret ballot elections are the only ones you can trust which is why they are a stable of many democracies from the beginning. You can trust it because you have enough observers, whom are indeed important to select well (covering all the biases). They monitor the voting and counting to make cheating on a large scale a large conspiracy, which by definition must have large public support.

ReptileMan 5y ago

Six zeros removed from nothing is still nothing. I doubt that there are many people that will be really hit by it, because it is like rain in a tsunami.

desine 5y ago
A sad reality is how true this is. Anyone who had built up savings 10+ years ago was already completely wiped out. The situation will not significantly change with this adjustment. The day to day for the common citizen of Venezuela is the same: work as much as you can, and immediately convert your money into tangibles: food, sundries, tools if one can be lucky enough to afford them. These things will continue to increase in cost, wages will continue to increase at comparable rates. It's a trap where one has no choice but to continue producing and consuming, and the money is nothing more than a temporary stopover.
- imtringued 5y ago
  >It's a trap where one has no choice but to continue producing and consuming, and the money is nothing more than a temporary stopover. You can always save in real assets. Why does everyone want to save in a promise that someone else will work for you?
  - desine 5y ago
    I don’t know but my other comment about a certain hard asset I save in got a couple downvotes. I chalk it up to ignorance being bliss. Nobody wants to think about how easily they can lose it all

matheusmoreira 5y ago

> it is even more horrible how people consider it a joke It is a joke. The world we live in is absurd. Government inflates its own currency so bad it wipes out the entire economy. Citizens are left holding worthless paper. That happened in my country too. It could happen in yours. Actually it's only a matter of time before it happens to every currency in the world: they're all inflationary. The solution? More of the same. Start from scratch by creating a new currency to inflate. This is exactly what they did. Multiple times. We either laugh at this insanity or we cry.

Geee 5y ago
There is obviously a solution, which is Bitcoin. It'll end this madness that has destroyed societies from the beginning of time.
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  Cryptocurrency? Perhaps. Technologically, bitcoin is a failure and not a solution to anything. Monero is a much better project. Also, it's perfectly possible to inflate bitcoin despite its fixed supply. It's possible to inflate any currency. Implement fractional reserve banking on top of it. New coins will be created through loans, inflating the currencies.
  - Geee 5y ago
    Why do you say that? Do you think that Bitcoin is too easy to stop for governments? Bitcoin is already used in lots of countries which suffer from inflation. It doesn't seem to be a failure. In El Salvador, there are more people with a bitcoin wallet than people with a bank account. More than 30% of people in Nigeria have used bitcoin. It's also popular in Venezuela. FRB is not a problem, because bitcoin can and should be owned non-custodially. Paper bitcoins created by a bank wouldn't be compatible with actual bitcoins, and wouldn't expand its supply.
    - matheusmoreira 5y ago