There Are None So Blind As Those Who Will Not See

This morning I was lying in bed partaking in one of my Sunday morning rituals, that being going to a news site app on my phone and reading BBC, CNN, Fox News, and USAToday.  3:1 liberal but it's nice to get different views, even if I disagree with them.

I came across this story on BBC:

Why you need sackfuls of banknotes to shop in Venezuela

Last week Venezuela announced it would withdraw its highest-denomination banknote from circulation. Long queues formed outside banks as people scrambled to change theirs before they became redundant. The withdrawal of the 100-bolivar note has now been delayed until the start of January, but ordinary people must still grapple with spiralling (sic) prices and increasingly worthless notes, as Gideon Long reports...

The losers are ordinary Venezuelans, whose salaries are losing value by the minute, and who have to queue for hours to buy basic foodstuffs that they can scarcely afford.

All this in an oil-rich country whose citizens were once famous for their international shopping sprees. It doesn't add up.

It used to be that Venezuela was an up-and-coming, oil-rich country with a strong middle class.  Next door Colombia was a hell-hole of FARC rebels and the Medellin drug cartel.  In the last 25 years, though, both countries have done a complete 180.  Colombia is relatively peaceful and prosperous while Venezuela continues to devolve into long lines, empty stores, and massive inflation.

Gideon Long says it doesn't add up, but Gideon Long is blind only because he will not see.  I read his entire article, and then had my browser search for the word "socialist" or "socialism" in the article.  There wasn't a single use of either word.

That is why it "doesn't add up" for Gideon Long.  That is why the BBC is considered left-leaning.

Update:  Let's not forget the information in this post from last summer.