How can a cup of coffee cost two *million* ??

Five years ago a cup of coffee in Caracas--the capital of socialist-ruled Venezuela--cost three bolivars.

Today, thanks to hyperinflation resulting from dumb-ass socialist policies, that same cup now costs an astonishing 2 million bolívars.

Even two years ago, residents who wanted to go out for a rare restaurant dinner had to bring a duffel-bag to carry the amount of case needed.

This was a problem because there were lots of citizens who had been alive five years ago, and recalled when a cup of coffee cost three bolivars.  So having to pay 2 million for one reminded these people of what total idiots were running the country.

Ooooh, can't have that, citizen!
 
But don't worry, citizen!  Because the same brilliant socialists who caused all this (by printing money the government didn't have--cuz that's how low-info voters believe government works, right?) have the solution:  They've introduced a new currency, with bank notes printed in a different color!

It's brilliant!  Okay, I didn't mention that people will be able to exchange "old" bolivars for the new ones.  The original plan was to set the exchange rate at 1000 to 1, but then people who could actually do (gasp!) math told the rulers that at this rate a cup of coffee would still cost 2,000 bolivars.  So the rulers decided to add two more zeroes to the exchange rate.

Brilliant!  So every citizen will now be required to exchange 100,000 "old" dollars bolivars for one new bolivar.

But remember, the exciting new currency is printed in a different color, so that makes all the difference in the world, eh?

Wait...do I hear you say "This can't possibly be true!  It's simply not possible that a cup of coffee that cost three "currency units" five years ago now costs two million.  This must be some of that "fake news" that the media have warned us about, where nutty right-wing-extremist bloggers make stuff up to scare voters into doubting what our media tells us."

Rats!  You got me.  The above story indeed came from a very shady organization--one that routinely publishes fake news.  They're kept in business by cash infusions from a foreign billionaire (probably the Koch brothers!).  Honestly, it's amazing that anyone pays any attention to what these sleazoids publish.

The story was published in the New York Times.

Okay, sarc off.  One of the absolute hallmarks of socialists is that they never learn from history.  If no country had ever experienced hyperinflation before, one might excuse the cunning thugs ruling poor Venezuela by claiming no one had any idea this would happen.  But in fact the world has seen this play several times--most recently in Germany between the world wars.  (Google "Weimar republic").  

Specifically, a government can only consistently spend more than it takes in by either borrowing, or simply printing billions more in banknotes than its tax revenue.  If it goes with the second option, inflation jacks prices sharply.  Clever people, recognizing this, exchange the national currency for either a stable foreign currency, or for material goods they can barter later.

Seeing this, the totalitarian government makes it illegal for ordinary citizens to do it.  And of course everyone stops at once, and the problem is solved.

Hahahahahaha!  Yes, the totalitarian government banning those things works just as well as when governments ban the sale of illegal drugs, or gun ownership, or murder.  Yeah, works like a charm.

At this point someone always asks, "Uh, why doesn't the government just reduce spending, to match the amount of its tax revenue?"

Whereupon large men in sunglasses, working for Democrats and socialists, hustle the questioner out of the room and he's never seen again.  Cuz Democrats and socialists won't cut spending--because they won election by promising voters "free stuff."  End the "free stuff" and they'd have to actually debate their ideas in public--which rarely goes well for 'em.

Of course a few Dems/socialists are bright enough to have a vague feeling that all the things they've promised to give voters "for free" may not, in fact, actually be, y'know, free.   Unless people start working for nothing--something I haven't seen catching on yet.  So how do the socialists propose to pay for all the new "freebies"?

Easy: print money.  Trillions of dollars or pesos or bolivars or whatever.  After all, the gruberment owns the presses, right?  Why can't it print as much currency as it wants, eh?

Which, of course, is exactly what happened to Venezuela.  And the Weimar republic.  And to dozens of other countries, though less severely.

Now, what does this have to do with you, dear reader?

Easy:  Democrats in the U.S. are going full-socialist, promising voters free medical care, free college for all, free housing, free internet, free...anything.  The Lying Mainstream Media has never asked 'em how they plan to pay for all that free stuff (and never will), because the media supports Democrats.

But interestingly, a few brave souls from non-mainstream media have gone to college campuses with a video crew and asked college students where they think the money will come from.  The question is always met with either blank looks or babbling Democrat-talking-point bullshit.   (A typical line is "Since single-payer (i.e. government-run) health care will cut out insurance companies, the costs will go way down!")

But at least some small percentage of college students are smart enough to understand that "free" doesn't literally mean that--that someone has to pay for everything.  Problem is, compare the number of people in the "skeptical" group to the far larger group of people who are either virtually innumerate (can't do numbers), or just dumb as rocks.  Both those groups are totally in the Dem/socialist camp--and always will be.  And they vote.

So this is what's coming up in the next election, and all the ones after that.  It's gonna be a fight between the "gimmeedats" and the group Hilliary called the "deplorables," who have enough intelligence to understand that despite what the Dem leaders say, there ain't no such thing as "free."

Unfortunately, lots and lots of Americans can't resist the lure of "free stuff."

Finally, another example of hyperinflation, as reported by the NYTimes:  On July 25th of this year it took 3.5 million bolivars to buy one dollar at the rate available to regular citizens.

By the time the story was published just 22 days later, that had sunk to almost 6 million bolivars to a dollar.   Meaning that in 22 days the bolivar had lost not quite 40 percent of its value.  Meaning any imported product would cost 40 percent more...in just 22 days.

Of course that could never happen here, cuz our Democrat/socialists are way smaht.