COMMUNIST CUBA: I told you so...

I am going to gloat a little bit about the recent developments in Cuba. My wife leans leftward; some of her friends are either socialists or unabashed Communists and they all support Cuba as if it was some idealistic nation arguing that their system of government is the only fair system as opposed to a quite unfair capitalist system here at home.

Well I am happy to symbolically kick them in the ass and call them naïve, misguided twits now that Fidel Castro himself has stated that their system (Communism) will not work for any other country (Venezuela, etc.) because it does not work in Cuba and has not worked for a long time (if ever?).

Today, Cuba announced that it is firing 500,000 government workers because they are not needed. Fidel himself said that up to a million workers will have to be let go because they are redundant (they pretend to work and Cuba pretends to pay them). Up to now, 85% of workers in Cuba worked for the government.

When asked where are these laid-off workers supposed to find jobs, the reply was in the private sector but there is no private sector in Cuba? Raul Castro (brother of Fidel) has been trying to ease restrictions on private enterprise but expecting 500,000 workers to start their own companies overnight is absurd.

In the past, Cuba was subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars by the Soviet Union but obviously the Soviet Union’s Communist system collapsed some time ago and they became the poor man among nations and could no longer give Cuba any help; Cuba had to rely on their economic model all alone and see what happened?

Fidel will not admit that he was dead wrong and his revolution only condemned the happy people of Cuba to a life of poverty and want. I wish I could rub his face in shit and say see you moron what you have done?

But if we want to help the long suffering people of Cuba we need to do what we did to China; open the flood gates to capitalism. Let investment flow in. Build resorts and spas putting people to work and bringing in tourist dollars.

Allow private ownership of farms and factories; Cuban cigar and rum for everyone! Of course we would have to get rid of the Communist government first; maybe they would be willing to just dissolve themselves.

I will say that the misery of the Cuban people was prolonged by the U.S. insistence on blockading the island and guaranteeing the people would remain in poverty to this very day. That policy was misguided and plain stupid; who were we really punishing?

I call on President Obama to open talks with Raul Castro and ease all restrictions on Cuba in response to Cuba easing all restrictions to a free market system in their country. I would love to visit Cuba in my lifetime and have a drink and cigar where Ernest Hemingway used to do the same!!!

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• Layoffs just part of Cuba's big economic revamp (sfgate.com)
• Is "Comrade Castro" really giving up on the Cuba model? (newstatesman.com)
• Cuba to lay off 500,000 in workers paradise (hotair.com)
• Cuba's Big Layoff: What to Do with the Unemployed? (time.com)
• Cuba to cut a million public jobs (bbc.co.uk)