Venezuela heavily subsidized gasoline for its citizens to the point where, in 2018, a single cup of coffee cost the exact same amount as filling the gas tanks of roughly nine thousand separate SUVs.

A closer look

Venezuela heavily subsidized gasoline for its citizens to the point where, in 2018, a single cup of coffee cost the exact same amount as filling the gas tanks of roughly nine thousand separate SUVs. The government essentially practically gave away the nation's massive oil reserves for free to maintain political popularity, heavily distorting the local economy. Unfortunately, when the global price of oil inevitably crashed, the state-run petroleum infrastructure completely deteriorated due to extreme mismanagement and zero domestic revenue. It is the ultimate tragicomedy of petro-state economics, creating an absurd reality where the water you used to wash your windshield was drastically more expensive than the highly combustible, processed crude oil physically powering your vehicle down the shattered highways of a collapsing nation!