A picture is worth a thousand words

The pic below is of a street in Venezuela.  The pieces of paper littering the street are 1,000 Bolivar banknotes.  Wait, that sounds impossible.  Why aren't the people rushing around picking up all the cash?

Because it's not worth the paper it's printed on.

20-something American:  "Wait, how can that be?  Aren't those worth, like, a hundred bucks?"

Ah yes, grasshopper, that was once true.  But that was before a corrupt socialst government started promising huge amounts of "free stuff" to voters.  To deliver all the "free" stuff they promised, they simply printed tons of new banknotes.  This caused hyperinflation, wiping out the value of all savings.

Most foreign companies stopped selling goods to Venezuela because the national currency was worthless.  People began starving.  Lines to groocery stores stretched for two or three miles.  People began killing zoo animals for food.

20-something American:  "Stop lying, old man.  None of that can be true, cuz if it was, CNN and NBC and ABC would have told us about it!  You must be one of them crazy Trump voters!"