Unintended consequences - Venezuela
From
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Chavez's gasoline rationing plan causes uproar
As home to the world's cheapest gasoline, Venezuela has long had to contend with the hemorrhaging of supplies as smugglers haul gas across the border to cash in where the fuel costs far more.
In neighboring Colombia, drivers pay 40 times as much as Venezuelans to tank up — $1.25 a liter ($4.73 a gallon), compared to 3 U.S. cents a liter (11 cents a gallon).
So much gasoline is being taken out of Venezuela illegally that President Hugo Chavez's socialist government imposed rationing on motorists in one state bordering Colombia last year, and now it's touched off a furor in a second border state by announcing it will ration gasoline there, too.
Fix the price and you will have problems. Let the market set the price and everyone is happiest.
Posted by DaveH at July 21, 2012 8:24 PM