The price of vice increases in Venezuela

[KEmperor]

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN)  -- The price of sin rose Monday in Venezuela where President Hugo Chavez is on a campaign to make Venezuelans cut back on drinking and smoking.

"Everyone's shocked," said Leonora Marino, owner of Bodegon Marino in Valencia, Venezuela, west of Caracas.

On Monday evening, she was still changing the prices in her store as her customers looked on and complained, she told a reporter.

Alcohol is now 10 percent more expensive; cigarettes are 20 percent pricier.

"Really, it's difficult to buy at these prices," she said, then joked, "They say they're going to stop eating so that they can continue drinking."

"It's unfair because, in the end, the consumer is the one who pays," said Fernando Fernandez, a liquor exporter.

Chavez has described whisky as a drink for rich people, not for revolutionaries.

"We cannot be spending the international reserves of this country on whiskey," he said.

The moves represent the first steps toward transforming each Venezuelan into what Chavez calls "the new man." Chavez has cited the life of revolutionary socialist icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara as an example of how to lead a more pure life.



I particularly like the fact that Chavez says that drinking is for rich people, not for "revolutionaries."

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This is why Chavez lost my support.

[Ebowed]

If he raises them high enough, maybe a risky and violent black market will develop.

Anyway, just further proof that only prudes and social engineers support "sin taxes."

[John Dibble]

He should continue doing stuff like this so he pisses off the Venezuelans enough that they'll vote for someone else.

[opebo]

He should continue doing stuff like this so he pisses off the Venezuelans enough that they'll vote for someone else.

Hasn't happen in the Land of Social Control (USA).