But far from electricity for all, there are now shortages — the same kind hitting other industries Chavez has meddled in.
Businesses have been confiscated across the board in Venezuela, amounting to a nationalization of much of the economy. Chavez has taken cattle ranches, sugar farms, steel companies, cement companies, oil companies, ketchup and soda factories, apartment buildings, phone companies, and TV stations, handing many over to the control of his cronies. His government's excuses for the theft have ranged from lack of title deed, idleness, hoarding, strategic value, ownership by the wrong race (read: white) and, in the case of RCTV, the station Chavez shut down last year, "coup-plotting."
Price controls have eliminated all incentive for farms to produce more. As a result, there's little meat, milk, coffee, eggs, or salt in Venezuelan shops.
DKK
Investors Business Daily
Via: DANEgerus Weblog -- Bill Richardson's good buddy Hugo
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