How to Survive When Money Is Worthless [video]

>here are a few strategies people used in those days (in fact I and my family used too). Note that inflation got even crazier after I left - and I'm not sure what other things people did to handle that; but I suspect friends/family/connections continue to be extremely important.

In case of my dad things were following

1. Arm yourself

2. Hire other armed people

3. Run as fast as you can to the Far East

4. Be at good terms with all the local seamen, from military ship crews, to Korean fishing cooperative members

5. Laugh at yesterday kings bringing you stacks of Swiss Franks, and golden bricks just to get a bag of flour.

My father still has a brick of pure scandium, and one of indium in his cabinet from the time some military bureaucrat gave them to him for few crates of instant noodles

What played a bad joke at communists was a fact that they were buying loyalty of their military officers with lavish lifestyle and gigantic expense accounts. A two star general could've afforded a lifestyle close to that of a person making 6 digits in USA.

The moment commies were unable to pay for it, and the subjective prestige value of state perks vent below that of owning a foreign made car, the ironclad loyalty vaned in just few months.

There were fun times in Vladivostok

Given the presentation doesn't actually provide how people survive, these are some "insights" into it:

- Paper money is useless (as seen in the video) so everything is done via bank transfer. This has led to a very fast adoption of internet banking. You want to pay someone, you make them a transfer and show them the transaction.

- There are places where paper money is needed, parking lots. You have to pay 100.000 bolivares in bills of 500. ATMs don't give you enough money to cover that, so you need to ... buy packets of money, for a premium.

- Credit cards can't keep up their limits with the inflation. All the credit cards in a middle class family amount to a few dollars.

- Unusual for a country like Venezuela, some weird sense of trust is now needed. You might go to get a haircut and then make a money transfer from your PC when you get home. No one wants your paper currency.

- Bitcoin has become a common way of sending money from abroad to family in Venezuela. There's people that will buy it in exchange for Bolivares (Venezuelan currency) at a premium. Again, you have to trust them to hold their side of the bargain.

- All of the issues above work while internet and electricity are working, which very often, doesn't. Banking infrastructure is pushed to its limits .

- There's start ups trying to work around these trust and centralized systems using blockchain technology. (https://www.citywallet.net/ - in spanish)

Thanks for that. It seems safer than I imagined (Schools, theatres, and bars), might have something to do with his financial status though.

What, if anything, constructive could you add to help with the problem? Indignation at assumed apathy is something you may experience but if you are truly concerned please help us help.

If you have access to USD, you can usually exchange them quite easily - not officially, of course, but you'll find buyers: importers that will get a nice return on them, individuals who want to keep their remaining savings from disappearing, and so on.