5/03/2016

The End Is Near For Venezuela

Way back on June 14th of 2002, my dear brother penned a post that explained a very simple truth that is still as true today as it was almost four thousand years ago: Beer is the elixir of civilization.

I won't go into any detail about his post as you can read it for yourself. However, I can use his treatise to prove the truth of a prediction that some may find a little whimsical, but no less true for all that.

The prediction: Venezuela is at the cusp of total collapse.

How do I know this? It's simple really.

They've run out of beer.

Venezuela's largest privately-owned beer company has stopped producing beer after running out of malted barley (or, more specifically, running out of foreign currency with which to buy malted barley).

The company, Empresas Polar, stopped production yesterday—it warned last week that it would run out of malted barley by then.

Polar is putting "your drunk uncle's favorite political forecast to the test," Francisco Toro of the Caracas Chronicles wrote. "You know the one I'm talking about, right? That one uncle of yours who gets drunk at every family gathering and starts to rant about how the only way we're going to get people mad enough to take to the streets and overthrow the government is if the beer runs out? Well, here you have it Tio."

No beer, no civilization. Therefore Venezuela, or more particularly, the Chavistas and President Maduro are doomed.

They can't say they weren't warned.