4

Zimbabwe Dollars Were Repurposed For Ridiculous Things

The Zimbabwean

Even before being dropped as currency, the Zimbabwe dollar had virtually no value. A bundle of trillion-dollar notes could only buy a quarter-loaf of bread. And then there was toilet paper:

"The WC [bathroom] at the gas station across the border could not afford toilet paper, and buying it would require bundles of dollars for even one roll. When I had to use one there was a metal bin full of Zimbabwe dollars for only a few billion each. We had to literally wipe ourselves with billions of dollars."

John Moore/Getty Images News/Getty Images
"Quit wasting time making it different colors; they're all going to be brown in the end."

3

Society Becomes Barter-Driven

Robin Hammond / New York Times

2

The Black Market Becomes The Most Legitimate Market

Brent Winebrenner/Lonely Planet/Getty Images

Because all the marketplaces and businesses were now functioning through barters and haggling, the old rules no longer applied. For example, take the guy who had been snapping up and stockpiling shirts and only traded them for things he needed. Shirts were so rare that he could charge whatever he wanted for them, and he took full advantage of his monopoly on nipple coverings. In order to keep prices stable, there has to be competition. Lucky for everyday people, there was a friendly neighborhood black market.

"All the merchants and traders hated the black market, and not just because of their questionable legality," recalls Piet. "The black market had everything, so they became the competition to those who otherwise had complete control of the market. One black market guy on the border from Victoria Falls would always come on a Wednesday. He had all the electronics and appliances (DVD players, iPods, toasters). In the town, there were a bunch of traders who sold these for severely high markups. One guy sold his car to one of the 'legitimate' traders for a satellite dish because he wanted to see the 2008 Olympics.

Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images
The only bigger waste of money than the trillions in his wastebasket.

Here comes the black market guy to save the day! He also had a few dishes (thanks illegal cable!). Everyone wanted to see a swimmer named Kirsty Coventry, and since many people had TVs but no way of getting signals all the way from Harare, satellite dishes were the only way."

Quinn Rooney/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images
That medal fetched her half a bag of semi-digested Skittles.

1

You Suddenly Get Freedoms You'd Never Dreamed Of Having

Medioimages/Photodisc/Photodisc/Getty Images

The Zimbabwean government didn't want to just give up on money and make "whatever you got on ya" the official national currency. So President Mugabe had to swallow his pride and drop the long-standing law that had forbidden the exchange of foreign currency.

"I had always brought money with me going up. That was always worrisome, as I could be robbed," says Piet. "But once foreign currency was lifted, I could now bring U.S. dollars and euros in to buy food and gas. For a while it was only the white community and tourists bringing it in, but once the government abolished the rule banning money transfers, all the bartering stopped."

John Moore/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Doctors still worked for peanuts though, because Mugabe was still an asshole.

When these laws about foreign currency were suddenly dropped, people realized that the government could, in fact, do their jobs if you really, really pushed them to. The people pushed. In 2014, Zimbabwe's highest court rescinded the prohibition on publishing "false statements." (In the past, the government had defined "false statements" as "anything they didn't like.")

Even Mugabe was forced to share power. In 2009, Zimbabwe elected its first prime minister since 1987. All of this stemmed from laws enacted to help fight hyperinflation. Sadly, the position was abolished after the economy stabilized, similar to how Germany consolidated and centralized leadership in the 1930s. You know what they say: "Mo' money, 'mo problems."

John Moore/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Or perhaps more accurately, "some money, mo' problems."

Regardless, Zimbabwe is now on the long road to recovery. Its people are just the latest in a long line to learn the awful truth: Hyperinflation sucks for everyone ... except the guy with a shirt monopoly. He doesn't have it quite so bad.

Evan V. Symon is the interview finder guy for Cracked. Have an awesome job or experience? Hit us up at tips@cracked.com.

Zachary Frey is going to be a freshman at Cornell University this August. He also writes for Cracked on a regular basis. You can (and should) read some of his other awesome articles here.

For more insider perspectives, check out 6 Insane Things You Learn Overthrowing Your Own Government and I Was Transgender And Didn't Know It: 6 Weird Realities.

Be sure to follow us on Facebook and YouTube, where you can catch all our video content such as 5 People Who Are Way Too Good At Crappy Jobs and other videos you won't see on the site!

Have a story to share with Cracked? Email us here.