Castro : Communism Doesn't Work in Cuba

[Osprey 199]

HAVANA — Fidel Castro told a visiting American journalist that Cuba's communist economic model doesn't work, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has conspicuously steered clear of local issues since stepping down four years ago.

 

The fact that things are not working efficiently on this cash-strapped Caribbean island is hardly news. Fidel's brother Raul, the country's president, has said the same thing repeatedly. But the blunt assessment by the father of Cuba's 1959 revolution is sure to raise eyebrows.

 

Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, asked if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting to other countries, and Castro replied: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore," Goldberg wrote Wednesday in a post on his Atlantic blog.

 

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/castro-communism-doesnt-work/2010/09/08/id/369619

 

Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba has clung to its communist system.

 

The state controls well over 90 percent of the economy, paying workers salaries of about $20 a month in return for free health care and education, and nearly free transportation and housing. At least a portion of every citizen's food needs are sold to them through ration books at heavily subsidized prices.

 

Interesting piece since many in the US throughout its history have considered Cuba a "Worker's Paradise" and a "Triumph of social ownership"

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/castro-communism-doesnt-work/2010/09/08/id/369619

 

 

 

Interesting piece since many in the US throughout its history have considered Cuba a "Worker's Paradise" and a "Triumph of social ownership"

 

What idiot ever thought that?

 

Cuba's economic model has always sucked and up until now Castro has plugged his ears and said "LALALALALA I cant hear you" when anyone ever said otherwise.

[TheREALBrooksThompson 157]

Well...crap. It seems I was misinformed when I voted for these policies in '08.

[VCplusD12 91]

Well...crap. It seems I was misinformed when I voted for these policies in '08.

 

:shard: but seriously, :svgsad:

[My 6th Rebuild 6]

My wife has a family member who is a communist that points to Cuba as an example that communism works and the only reason why they are poor is because of the embargo.

[Emory889 353]

My wife has a family member who is a communist that points to Cuba as an example that communism works and the only reason why they are poor is because of the embargo.

 

They would need to export a lot of cigars to turn their economy around.

[Osprey 199]

What idiot ever thought that?

 

Cuba's economic model has always sucked and up until now Castro has plugged his ears and said "LALALALALA I cant hear you" when anyone ever said otherwise.

 

 

Here are just a few quotes from the elites on how wonderful Cuba is/was.

 

 

“There is, in Cuba, government intrusion into everyone’s life, from the moment he is born until the day he dies. The reasoning is that the government wants to better the lives of its citizens and keep them from exploiting or hurting one another....On a sunny day in a park in the old city of Havana it is difficult to see anything that is sinister.”

— NBC reporter Ed Rabel on Cuban life, Sunday Today, February 28, 1988.

 

 

“Castro has delivered the most to those who had the least....Education was once available to the rich and the well-connected. It is now free to all....Medical care was once for the privileged few. Today it is available to every Cuban and it is free....Health and education are the revolution’s great success stories.”

— Peter Jennings reporting from Havana on ABC’s World News Tonight, April 3, 1989.

 

“He [Fidel Castro] said he wanted to make a better life for Cuba’s poor. Many who lived through the revolution say he succeeded....Today even the poorest Cubans have food to eat, their children are educated and even critics of the regime say Cubans have better health care than most Latin Americans.”

— Reporter Paula Zahn on Good Morning America, April 3, 1989.

 

“Considered one of the most charismatic leaders of the 20th century....[Fidel] Castro traveled the country cultivating his image, and his revolution delivered. Campaigns stamped out illiteracy and even today, Cuba has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.”

— Katie Couric reporting on NBC’s Today, February 13, 1992.

 

“Frankly, to be a poor child in Cuba may in many instances be better than being a poor child in Miami, and I’m not going to condemn their lifestyle so gratuitously.”

— Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift on The McLaughlin Group, April 8, 2000.

 

“Elian [Gonzalez] might expect a nurturing life in Cuba, sheltered from the crime and social breakdown that would be part of his upbringing in Miami....The boy will nestle again in a more peaceable society that treasures its children.”

— Brook Larmer and John Leland, April 17, 2000 Newsweek.

 

“While Fidel Castro, and certainly justified on his record, is widely criticized for a lot of things, there is no question that Castro feels a very deep and abiding connection to those Cubans who are still in Cuba. And, I recognize this might be controversial, but there’s little doubt in my mind that Fidel Castro was sincere when he said, ‘listen, we really want this child back here.’”

— Dan Rather live on CBS the morning of the Elian raid, April 22, 2000.

 

“The school system in Cuba teaches that communism is the way to succeed in life and it is the best system. Is that de-programming, or is that national heritage?”

— NBC News reporter Jim Avila from Cuba on CNBC’s Upfront Tonight, June 27, 2000.

 

“For Castro, freedom starts with education. And if literacy alone were the yardstick, Cuba would rank as one of the freest nations on Earth. The literacy rate is 96 percent.”

— Barbara Walters on ABC’s 20/20, October 11, 2002.

 

 

And on, and on, and on.

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

Here are just a few quotes from the elites on how wonderful Cuba is/was.

 

a huge portion of those quotes deal with the school system. If the Literacy rate is at 96% they deserve that praise.

 

But economically their model has always sucked.

 

and these quotes aren't really praising at all:

 

“The school system in Cuba teaches that communism is the way to succeed in life and it is the best system. Is that de-programming, or is that national heritage?”

 

 

 

“Frankly, to be a poor child in Cuba may in many instances be better than being a poor child in Miami, and I’m not going to condemn their lifestyle so gratuitously.”

 

and the second quote is more about showing how bad the living conditions in the poor areas of miami are.

[Osprey 199]

a huge portion of those quotes deal with the school system. If the Literacy rate is at 96% they deserve that praise.

 

But economically their model has always sucked.

 

and these quotes aren't really praising at all:

 

 

 

and the second quote is more about showing how bad the living conditions in the poor areas of miami are.

 

First of all, that 96% literacy rate was generated by the Cuban government. Most people who study the country and the Cuban education system state that their true literacy rate is somewhere in the 40's. and even lower when compared to the measurements used by many western and developed nations.

 

You can't believe any stats pushed out by Communist and oppressive countries. I'm sure according to Kim Jong Il North Koreans have a literacy rate of 106%

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

First of all, that 96% literacy rate was generated by the Cuban government. Most people who study the country and the Cuban education system state that their true literacy rate is somewhere in the 40's. and even lower when compared to the measurements used by many western and developed nations.

 

You can't believe any stats pushed out by Communist and oppressive countries. I'm sure according to Kim Jong Il North Koreans have a literacy rate of 106%

 

well yeah, but people were commenting on the data wrongly assuming the data was correct.

[KillingInTheNameOf 63]

I'm sure Noam Chomsky and the Hollywood left will continue to claim communism would be fine if sanctions were lifted and obviously Fidel has become senile...

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

I'm sure Noam Chomsky and the Hollywood left will continue to claim communism would be fine if sanctions were lifted and obviously Fidel has become senile...

 

communism is a great idea for daydreaming about what the government would be like in "the perfect world". Its the optimist's government. Human nature makes it an impossibility.

 

It'd be awesome to get free everything. Everybody gets health care, everybody goes to a good school. Need food? go to a grocery store and don't pay.

 

People's need to be rewarded for work, Greed, wanting to be better than your neighbors, the fact that you still need to trade with other countries, laziness, etc make communism an unachievable goal.