Life Under Socialism

Reminds me of a news crawl I saw on TV a while back. Some UN bureaucrat had praised Cuba for managing to provide food for all of its people. Now, why is Cuba getting praised for this, and not, say, Sweden, or Singapore, or Canada? Because those are all rich countries in which it is simply taken as a given that nobody is so poor as to starve to death in the street. Cuba is a poor country. It would actually deserve praise for policies that ensured that everyone were fed, were it not for the fact that those same policies are what causes it to be a poor country in the first place.

It's tempting to say that the Venezuelans are getting what they deserve for electing Chavez, except for the millions who did not support him, and are now suffering due to the ignorance and idiocy of their neighbors. Viva democracy!

I have visited Cuba twice. I highly recommend it, since Castro's Cuba will soon vanish (I even saw Hugo and Fidel speak on May Day 2005 - a laugh a minute).

For people who have not been there the statement about the relative wages of luggage handlers and neurosurgeons is incomprehensible. I prefer to speak of it this way. There are only two possibilities for Cubans. Those who can get in contact with the tourist trade, in any way, shape or form, have a chance for a decent third world living. The rest don't. It's all or nothing - get your money from a tourist, or get no money at all.

If it weren't so depressing, it would be hilarious.

Soviet Union 20 years ago had the same problem. The supermarket staff the elite. Any tourist from USA was like a god.