<story><title>How to Survive When Money Is Worthless [video]</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/27/world/americas/venezuela-money-how-to-survive.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>WrathOfJay</author><text>I actually found this to be worth the time.  I haven&amp;#x27;t paid much attention to the situation down there, and seeing it was enlightening.&lt;p&gt;Onto the content...&lt;p&gt;I wonder, can someone tell me why there are so many obese people in these video clips, if food is so hard to come by?&lt;p&gt;Why does there seem to be so many people sitting around?  Surely with so much manpower available, there are way to make them productive on a large scale?</text></item><item><author>QasimK</author><text>For all the negative comments about the presentation, which I might normally agree with, I liked this format this time. It took a while to load (thank you multi-threading).&lt;p&gt;I got through it because I treated it like an interactive video with subtitles, which is better than a video. I liked the sound - which, in my iPhone, was muted at the started as my phone was muted, so I didn&amp;#x27;t even realise there was audio. I liked that I could go forwards and backwards. I liked that I could just read. It fit well on my phone, I don’t know what it looks like on desktop.&lt;p&gt;Now, getting to the content itself, I found it to be very sad, especially at how the spirit to protest was killed.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>a3n</author><text>&amp;gt; I wonder, can someone tell me why there are so many obese people in these video clips, if food is so hard to come by?&lt;p&gt;If those people are alive (as they observably are), then logically they are getting food.&lt;p&gt;When you&amp;#x27;re poor, you generally can only afford low quality food. Low quality food is bad for your health, resulting in many problems including obesity and diabetes.&lt;p&gt;Low quality food is generally processed grain. It&amp;#x27;s cheap to make and cheap to keep &amp;quot;fresh,&amp;quot; which is why we have so much of it in the US. Think high fructose corn syrup, and almost anything that comes in a box, and do the thought experiment across the food chain from the farm, through manufacturing and distribution, to consumption and the doctor&amp;#x27;s office.&lt;p&gt;When you see a population of obese people, don&amp;#x27;t think that their food problem is solved; realize that the food they have practical access to is a problem. (And yes, many rich people in rich countries are obese and have a choice, but many of &lt;i&gt;those&lt;/i&gt; obese people are poor and do not, and we&amp;#x27;re not talking about a rich country at the moment.)</text></comment>
<story><title>How to Survive When Money Is Worthless [video]</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/27/world/americas/venezuela-money-how-to-survive.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>WrathOfJay</author><text>I actually found this to be worth the time.  I haven&amp;#x27;t paid much attention to the situation down there, and seeing it was enlightening.&lt;p&gt;Onto the content...&lt;p&gt;I wonder, can someone tell me why there are so many obese people in these video clips, if food is so hard to come by?&lt;p&gt;Why does there seem to be so many people sitting around?  Surely with so much manpower available, there are way to make them productive on a large scale?</text></item><item><author>QasimK</author><text>For all the negative comments about the presentation, which I might normally agree with, I liked this format this time. It took a while to load (thank you multi-threading).&lt;p&gt;I got through it because I treated it like an interactive video with subtitles, which is better than a video. I liked the sound - which, in my iPhone, was muted at the started as my phone was muted, so I didn&amp;#x27;t even realise there was audio. I liked that I could go forwards and backwards. I liked that I could just read. It fit well on my phone, I don’t know what it looks like on desktop.&lt;p&gt;Now, getting to the content itself, I found it to be very sad, especially at how the spirit to protest was killed.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>peterlk</author><text>&amp;gt; Why does there seem to be so many people sitting around?&lt;p&gt;The fundamental problem with corruption, and the reason that corrupt dictatorships do not work in practice is that people need to be able to keep the things they produce. If, say, you are hungry, you might start a community garden to feed yourself and your neighbors. However, you can only feed yourself if men with guns don&amp;#x27;t decide that the garden is actually theirs. If you expand this system out to every facet of society, then there&amp;#x27;s no point in anyone helping anyone else because any public good is sucked up by corrupt people who claim it for themselves. Everyone must get by on less than is worth stealing, or they have to do it in secret.</text></comment>