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You're perfectly correct. If oil prices had kept rising then the government might have been able to spend their way past their man-made famine. But when the inevitable happened, and oil prices dropped, it's a bit rich to turn around and say "it's all the oil prices fault." It's their fault. They fucked up and created an imbalanced system with a single point of failure (which wasn't even working all that well at the best of times).
Even if we forgive them for that, there's absolutely no reason to keep pursuing an obviously unsustainable policy of price ceilings and refusing to surrender the price controls and let the private sector feed people again. It's pure egotism and it's killing people.
There is no private sector for US food prices, not since that great depression thing in the 1930s. However, the single point of failure thing is valid. The US is a bit more diversified for the moment.
Well, there's a private sector in the sense that, if a supermarket wants to import some beef and sell it at market rates, they can do that. I wouldn't say the US food supply is a free market by any means, but if prices need to rise due to scarcity, they're allowed to.
Plus, the US produces most of it's own food, whereas I gather Venezuela is fairly reliant on imports. Creating unrealistic price ceilings in that climate means those goods will no longer be sold.
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[–] Broc_Lia 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
You're perfectly correct. If oil prices had kept rising then the government might have been able to spend their way past their man-made famine. But when the inevitable happened, and oil prices dropped, it's a bit rich to turn around and say "it's all the oil prices fault." It's their fault. They fucked up and created an imbalanced system with a single point of failure (which wasn't even working all that well at the best of times).
Even if we forgive them for that, there's absolutely no reason to keep pursuing an obviously unsustainable policy of price ceilings and refusing to surrender the price controls and let the private sector feed people again. It's pure egotism and it's killing people.
[–] B3bomber 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
There is no private sector for US food prices, not since that great depression thing in the 1930s. However, the single point of failure thing is valid. The US is a bit more diversified for the moment.
[–] Broc_Lia ago
Well, there's a private sector in the sense that, if a supermarket wants to import some beef and sell it at market rates, they can do that. I wouldn't say the US food supply is a free market by any means, but if prices need to rise due to scarcity, they're allowed to.
Plus, the US produces most of it's own food, whereas I gather Venezuela is fairly reliant on imports. Creating unrealistic price ceilings in that climate means those goods will no longer be sold.