What the fuck is wrong with Venezuela?

Crime is high because impunity is high, and stealing is still profitable. If police worked there, criminals might think twice before pointing a gun at someone and asking for their phone, or kidnapping someone and asking their family for money or taking him to a few ATMs. Corruption is fucking everywhere, and pretty much every public worker (mostly policemen and anyone that deals with documents) asks for extra money to do their job.

To prevent smuggling, obviously, didn't you read the article?

fucks sake

Further proof that Socialism can only work on a nation by nation basis where each nation has secure borders.

That's not what your link is saying, OP, and you know that.

The government is providing stuff at subsidized lower prices. Venezuela is not an island-fortress. So, people from across the border buy stuff cheaper and sell it in their country at profit. Ways of dealing with that: 1. Stricter border controls. 2. Limit the amount sold per person and check citizenship. 3. Don't sell some stuff at super-cheap prices relative to the countries surrounding you and instead help the poor with cash transfers. 4. Don't sell some stuff at super-cheap prices and run an employer-of-last-resort program for anybody who wants a job at a living wage.

The third one is the most simple way of dealing with it and is what is usually proposed in our weekly POEPLE SHOOTED IN TEH HEAD AND RAPED BY MADURO threads. And you probably know that, too.

Dude, are you blind or some shit? The government has been doing that for ages.

Buying cheap stuff and exporting it is no longer profitable. The newest trend is buying cheap stuff and reselling it at a higher price in the same city. Sometimes, the markup that they give it is so high that food imported from Colombia is cheaper.

P L E B T I E R

I know. Venezuela is not the first country in the world to subsidize goods at controlled lower prices. I was describing the problem with that in general and the ways that problem is dealt with in general. It should be obvious from the post what I'd rather do.

Gee, what economic prowess.

Why doesn't the government just sell directly to Columbians and keep the profit for the people of Venezuela?

...

Nobody is smuggling food out of the country anymore.

Nothing new, just US and their western allies exaggerating the situation, to justify a military intervention in Venezuela.

You see, it's all western propaganda and lies there is no need to even bother reading misinformation.

MIXED ECONOMIES

So Venezuelans are eating food every day and the rest is just a conspiracy?

i'm pretty sure that everyone eats something considered "food" at least once every day

Why are you trying to make that abstract distraction?

Sure, "mud cakes" can be considered "food" but people are still starving to death and the only thing you've argued is that these people are nourished, you're a fucking halfwit.

I'm not who you think that I am, and I'm pretty sure that was joking.

The reason why the border was closed was to keep 100 bolivar banknotes in Colombia out, so forex houses can't deposit them in a bank account and they end up being useless. This is not related to diesel or food smuggling at all, that was just what the BBC article writer guessed.