Saturday, July 12, 2008

Cuba: Now With Only Half The Communism!

First China and Vietnam veered from the communist standard planned economy (how'd those work out, anyway?) towards a market driven economy. Today we learn that the last bastion of true communism outside of US academia, Cuba, may follow China and Vietnam.

HAVANA - President Raul Castro warned Cubans on Friday to prepare for a "realistic" brand of communism that is economically viable and does away with excessive state subsidies designed to promote equality on the island...

"Socialism means social justice and equality, but equality of rights, of opportunities, not of income," the 77-year-old president said in a speech that was taped and later aired on national television. "Equality is not egalitarianism."

That sentiment marks a break with his brother, who spent decades saying Cuba was building an egalitarian society.

So what's left of communist countries after you take away the communism? Just the police state.

Hat tip to NewsAlert.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but even that's transient although how long "transient" might be is open to question.

From what I understand the Chinese are already running into problems resulting from the booming economy; more and more Chinese think they ought to have more and more of a say over more and more of their lives.

You can satisfy some of the demands for more autonomy by increasing prosperity but sooner or later you run into situations that more renminbis won't solve and that a vote will. I've read of elections in some towns and cities although not yet at the regional level. Of course the national government is still firmly in the grip of the communist party.

I guess the big question is how long can the national communist party maintain a lock on national government? Hard to say but the speed with which the technology is changing, much of which empowers the individual, means those big changes aren't terribly far off.