A Puzzling Phenomenon

Have you ever discovered a $5 bill on the ground and felt like it was your lucky day? I know I have. But what if you found $500 or even $500,000? Recently, an entire country was faced with this exact question, but shockingly, none of them chose to take any of the money. Despite being extremely poor and struggling to afford food, they refused to take the free cash and some even threw it away. It's hard to explain, but keep watching to find out why this happened and how the money ended up on the street in the first place.

I used to believe in the saying "finders' keepers, losers' weepers," but as I got older, I realized it's illegal and considered stealing. However, some people still take the opportunity to collect money that isn't theirs, like what happened in San Diego in 2021. During an armored truck's delivery to a federal deposit facility, one of the back doors opened, causing thousands of bills to spill onto the freeway. Commuters behind the vehicle scrambled to grab as much cash as they could, causing chaos and traffic to come to a complete stop. A similar situation occurred in Atlanta in 2019 and in Indianapolis in 2018.

Even though free money may seem tempting, it is not actually free. The cash belongs to someone else, and picking it up without attempting to locate the owner is considered theft. In fact, taking money from the street is illegal, and if you can't prove that you tried to locate the original owner, you can be charged with "theft by finding." This applies even to a small sum of $5. While it's unlikely that anyone would sue you over such a small amount, you are legally obliged to investigate if the money was abandoned or not before picking it up.

Even if someone found $5 and wanted to report it, they might not want to go through the hassle of going to the police station, waiting for hours, and filling out a bunch of forms just to hand over a small amount of money. Additionally, some people might not trust law enforcement to track down the true owner of the money. However, in some cases, people could take the money without facing any legal consequences, despite not being allowed to do so. In the case of the video being discussed, some people were seen throwing money off their truck, which could not be passed off as an accident. Despite this, no one seemed to care. To understand this situation better, it's necessary to go back to pre-World War I Germany, where the Gold Standard was in effect. This system set the value of the German currency based on a fixed quantity of gold, which prevented countries from spending more than they could afford. However, when World War I broke out, many countries abandoned the Gold Standard to fund their war efforts. Germany, in particular, faced massive debts and had to pay over $350 billion in today's money to cover damages caused by the war.

Do you know how Germany tried to pay their debts? Well, they simply printed more money. However, printing more money can have serious consequences. The value of money is based on the value of the goods it is being exchanged for. If there are many goods to buy but not enough money to buy them, the value of goods decreases and the value of money increases. This is deflation, which leads to lower costs. On the other hand, if there is a lot of money but not enough goods, the value of goods goes up and the value of money goes down. This is inflation, which leads to higher costs.

For instance, if a loaf of bread costs $1, and the inflation rate is 10%, the same loaf of bread will cost $1.10 after one year, and $1.21 after two years. This means that the value of money decreases over time, and the country needs more money to ensure that everyone can afford basic goods. The government tries to keep the balance by adjusting the money supply.

However, in post-war Germany's case, the government printed more money than the goods produced. This led to hyperinflation, where the inflation rate rises over 1,000% per year. By 1923, one dollar was worth 4.2 trillion marks. Workers' wages were so high that they were paid three times a day, and employers would hand over huge piles of cash. People had so much money that they didn't know how much anything cost anymore. Inflation was so high that a loaf of bread that cost three marks in 1922 cost 80 billion marks in November 1923. This situation got so bad that people would burn piles of cash because it was worthless.

Overall, printing more money can have severe consequences if it's not balanced with the goods produced. Inflation and hyperinflation can cause the value of money to decrease rapidly, making it difficult for people to afford basic necessities. In a span of only one year, the value of a 10 mark note had dropped drastically to the point where it could barely buy a crumb, while people who were once billionaires found themselves struggling to find any use for their money. Banknotes were now cheaper than wallpaper and were even given to children to play with instead of toys. To keep up with the falling value of money, larger denominations were issued, making smaller ones irrelevant. By November 2023, there were 400 billion-trillion marks in circulation, and Germany was on the brink of total collapse. However, Gustav Stresemann was able to reverse this dire situation by renegotiating the payment terms and introducing a new currency, the Rentenmark. With a new money printing policy, he restricted the money supply, keeping it in line with the real worth of the economy, and this helped to stop hyperinflation in just three months. This led to the Golden Age in Germany, where the economy boomed from 1923 to 1929.

Fast forward to today, in 2021, Venezuela is suffering from uninterrupted inflation since 1983, with the highest inflation rate in the world in 2014. The Central Bank of Venezuela predicts an unprecedented rise in interest rates from 2016 to April 2019. Unlike the German crisis, Venezuela's economic problems are mostly due to government incompetence. Despite having the largest oil reserves in the world, with almost 13 trillion gallons of oil, they shifted a significant amount of their economic output into producing fossil fuels. Oil accounts for an overwhelming 99% of Venezuelan exports and 25% of their earnings. This concentration on one industry made them highly susceptible to fluctuations in oil prices, and the downturn in 2014 caused catastrophic consequences

Suddenly, there was an excess of oil production but no one was willing to buy it. As a result, the oil prices dropped significantly, by $30 a barrel in 2016. This serves as a reminder to not become overconfident and assume everything will work out as planned. However, losing 25% of a country's income alone is not enough to have a drastic impact on inflation rates. It takes more than that, such as having a corrupt leader who replaces knowledgeable oil experts with loyalists, to cause a significant impact. This is precisely what happened when Hugo Chavez became Venezuela's president in 1999. In 2002, he fired the executives of PVDSA, the government's oil organization, and replaced them with political allies who had no knowledge about the oil industry. Chavez's gain in power came at the expense of productivity and resulted in continuous decline in oil production until his death in 2013. Unfortunately, things did not improve after that as Nicolas Maduro took over as president and made no efforts to address government spending or oil production issues. Instead, he tried to print more money to cover the financial hit caused by falling oil prices. This resulted in the bolivar, Venezuela's currency, collapsing rapidly. In 2016, $1 was worth 1,000 bolivar and by August 2018, $1 was worth 5.9 million bolivar. To address this issue, the government introduced a new currency, the sovereign bolivar, but this alone is not enough to fix the economic imbalances. Unless actual measures are taken to address these issues, printing more money will only cause the currency to lose its value again. As of August 2021, the exchange rate was 4.2 million sovereign bolivar per US dollar, making it almost impossible for Venezuelans to maintain cash.

It took seven one-million bolivar notes to buy a loaf of bread in Venezuela, and these notes were difficult to obtain because of their high value. In October 2021, the government removed six zeros from the currency to make it more manageable, making one-million bolivar equal to one bolivar worth less than 25 cents. However, this constant yo-yoing of the currency only leads to people exchanging their old notes for new ones until the new notes become worthless, and larger notes need to be printed again and again.

The devaluation of the currency has caused millions of Venezuelans to suffer. Since 2015, almost six million people have fled the country, and 90% of those who remain live in poverty. High inflation rates have wiped out almost everyone's life savings, leaving many struggling to afford basic necessities such as food. The government's response has been to give away free handouts to pressure citizens to attend pro-government rallies.

Many people have tried to shield themselves from the damage caused by the devaluation by converting their money into more stable currencies like US dollars or Colombian pesos. This has made the bolivar even less desirable, and the government's attempt to fix the exchange rate against the US dollar has only driven people to trade their currency on the black market.

However, miraculously, the currency has made a comeback, trading at 24 bolivar to the dollar at the time of recording. This has been attributed to the rise in oil prices and Venezuela expanding into other industries such as gold, rum, and cocoa.

Diversifying their investments has had a positive impact on the Venezuelan economy, leading to its growth for the first time in seven years in 2021. This is great news for the 90% of Venezuelans who live in poverty. However, the country still faces significant challenges, and it is unlikely to see meaningful change without a fundamental shift in how it is governed. Unfortunately, corrupt officials worldwide have been exploiting their positions for political gain for a long time. The discovery of a large sum of cash recovered by the police from corrupt politicians in Brazil is just one example of this pervasive problem. While Denmark, New Zealand, and Finland are some of the least corrupt countries, people in other countries are still suffering from the actions of corrupt leaders. Despite this, Venezuelans can hope for a better future.

As for what shocked me the most, it was the extent of corruption around the world and its impact on people's lives. The fact that governments in countries like Syria and North Korea are impoverishing their citizens for their own gain is especially alarming.