December has become a new month where crime is “normal,” in any other country this would be extremely weird, but here it’s like a new custom. According to a research done by “El Nacional” crimes in the “happiest month” increase up to a double. You might ask why I am writing about this, but the truth is I feel like if people don't understand everything that is going on.
Economy is bursting with inflation and the price of any single product in any store is increasingly high. A few days ago as I walked through Plaza Mayor I saw a video game is worth 12,000 bsf! This number caused in impression on me, before every game was worth around 200 bsf, and so I realized the profound situation the country is living economically. The regulated price for a kg of chicken is 43 bsf, but how difficult is it to find it? The unavailability for this product makes the demand rise and the price along with it. So in the month where we Venezuelans east the most a kg of chicken could easily be worth as much as three times its price, but why is it still complicated to find it? The answer is that everything is connected to the dollar. The official rate is 11 bsf per dollar, but since the government does not provide or isn't providing as much as before people who own their businesses have no other option rather than buying from the street, where the rate is around 170 bsf per dollar, making the official rate a pure illusion of the truth. If you are asking yourself why the dollar affects the price of chicken look at it this way, if a company is importing such product in dollars the price of the product raises significantly so that the entrepreneur satisfies both the expenses and profits taking the price of food to a whole new level, leading to robberies for food. Now, imagine this effect with everything that is expensive in the country, if the owner cannot satisfy his expenses and create an accessible price people will not buy, leading to an owner to stop importing products. The official lowest wage is Bs. 4.889,11 and if a family eats a kg of chicken in 1-2 days and there are 30 days in a month multiply say 200 bsf (from the chicken hard to find) times 15 days (1kg per 2 days) equals 3000 bsf and thats if you eat chicken only for the whole month, but add in rice, vegetables, meat and some harina pan and you will exceed easily the minimum wage, which is equal to more crime for food.
This article is basically to try and share my point of view on the economical situation of the country, at the end of the day almost everyone understands my ideas, but not because of the prices in every single store, but because of the rough times every Venezuelan faces as they walk outside “towards another day at the office.”
Economy is bursting with inflation and the price of any single product in any store is increasingly high. A few days ago as I walked through Plaza Mayor I saw a video game is worth 12,000 bsf! This number caused in impression on me, before every game was worth around 200 bsf, and so I realized the profound situation the country is living economically. The regulated price for a kg of chicken is 43 bsf, but how difficult is it to find it? The unavailability for this product makes the demand rise and the price along with it. So in the month where we Venezuelans east the most a kg of chicken could easily be worth as much as three times its price, but why is it still complicated to find it? The answer is that everything is connected to the dollar. The official rate is 11 bsf per dollar, but since the government does not provide or isn't providing as much as before people who own their businesses have no other option rather than buying from the street, where the rate is around 170 bsf per dollar, making the official rate a pure illusion of the truth. If you are asking yourself why the dollar affects the price of chicken look at it this way, if a company is importing such product in dollars the price of the product raises significantly so that the entrepreneur satisfies both the expenses and profits taking the price of food to a whole new level, leading to robberies for food. Now, imagine this effect with everything that is expensive in the country, if the owner cannot satisfy his expenses and create an accessible price people will not buy, leading to an owner to stop importing products. The official lowest wage is Bs. 4.889,11 and if a family eats a kg of chicken in 1-2 days and there are 30 days in a month multiply say 200 bsf (from the chicken hard to find) times 15 days (1kg per 2 days) equals 3000 bsf and thats if you eat chicken only for the whole month, but add in rice, vegetables, meat and some harina pan and you will exceed easily the minimum wage, which is equal to more crime for food.
This article is basically to try and share my point of view on the economical situation of the country, at the end of the day almost everyone understands my ideas, but not because of the prices in every single store, but because of the rough times every Venezuelan faces as they walk outside “towards another day at the office.”