XPost: 24hoursupport.helpdesk, alt.politics.scorched-earth, uk.politics.misc   
   XPost: uk.legal, alt.politics.uk   
   From: burfordTjustice@tues.uk   
      
   LOL! How come those that promote Socialism are not   
   move there???   
      
   CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's socialist President Nicolas Maduro announced   
   on Sunday a 50 percent hike in the minimum wage and pensions, the fifth   
   increase over the last year, to help shield workers from the world's highest   
   inflation rate.   
      
   The measure puts the minimum monthly salary at 40,683 bolivars - about $60 at   
   the weakest exchange level under the state's currency controls, or $12 at the   
   black market rate.   
      
   "To start the year, I have decided to raise salaries and pensions," he said on   
   his weekly TV and radio program.   
      
   "In times of economic war and mafia attacks ... we must protect employment and   
   workers' income," added Maduro, who has now increased the minimum wage by a   
   cumulative 322 percent since February 2016.   
      
   The 54-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez attributes Venezuela's three-year   
   recession, soaring prices and product shortages to a plunge in global oil   
   prices since mid-2014 and an "economic war" by political foes and hostile   
   businessmen.   
      
   But critics say his incompetence, and 17 years of failed socialist policies,   
   are behind Venezuela's economic mess.   
      
   They say the constant minimum wage hikes symbolize Maduro's policy failures   
   and fail to keep pace with real on-the-street price rises.   
      
   Venezuela's inflation hit 181 percent in 2015, according to official data,   
   though opponents say the true figure was higher. There is no official data for   
   2016, but most economists think inflation at least doubled from the previous   
   year and will be worse    
   again in 2017.   
      
   Venezuela's opposition has said inflation was more than 500 percent in 2016,   
   while the economy shrank 12 percent. The government has given no gross   
   domestic product data for last year   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)