Christmas was not exactly merry in Venezuela, as the socialist state stole roughly four million toys from a business under the guise of “price gouging.”
The initial figure of toys seized by the Venezuelan government’s consumer protection agency was 4.8 million, which was later revised to 3.821 million toys.
“Boys and girls of the country will have a happy Christmas,” William Contreras, Venezuela’s national superintendent for the defense of socioeconomic rights, declared, announcing that every child will have the “right to have a merry Christmas.”
“They say we’re stealing the toys from this company, but the company committed fraud against our country,” Contreras pontificated.
Contreras’s is nothing more than Orweillian spin, as Venezuela’s economy has spiraled into disaster with an almost 500 percent inflation rate in 2016 alone, and could be as high as 1,660 percent in 2017. Anyone with a basic understanding of economics knows that inflation results in increased prices, meaning that the toy company wasn’t “price gouging,” it was acting rationally in response to poor government policy.
The people of Venezuela are not fooled by their government’s propaganda.
“This was plundering of inventory,” said Francisco Martínez, the president of Venezuela Chamber of Commerce. “The government didn’t even respect the company’s right of due process.”
Venezuelans have tweeted angrily that President Nicolas Maduro is “the modern Grinch.”
Conservative Review‘s Matt Kibbe also made the comparison in a Christmas Eve video.
“The plan is to redistribute those toys based on who deserves it more,” Kibbe said. “How is that going to work out? Perhaps it has to do with patronage to the socialist dictator. I don’t know about the tenants of national socialism, but jacking Santa’s little helpers at the point of a gun, taking toys from one and giving them to others, that ain’t Christmas.”
Venezuela’s government has a bad habit of confiscating things, as in August they stole over 2,000 firearms. Such is life in the alleged worker’s paradise.