Castro Dead: Revelry and Cheers in Miami

If *you* had waited for the better part of 70 years for justice, then you’d be able to appreciate all the emotions the Cubans are experiencing today. Many families have become citizens, and have built lives here and have no desire to go back.

I had a couple of Cuban friends during my lifetime, and got to know the family of one of them very well. They were a hard working family who were GRATEFUL for the freedom America afforded them. They LOVED America!

I, too, have many many feelings. *I* wish that Mr. and Mrs. G were still alive to see this day so we could share it together. God bless them and all those who died waiting for their justice.

...”the people need to benefit, not their brutal dictator.”

I wasn’t suggesting Trump wants to “make a buck” off Cuba, much less prop up any dictators. Rather I’m saying that the exposure to capitalism—its technologies, its products, and everyday practices-—is in itself inherently liberating.
You can’t have capitalism without freedom-—individual incentive (to profit) innovation and competition, not to mention private property.
Thus, to any mainstream media suggestions that Trump might reinstate the embargo, I am merely saying no, why would he want to do that? Right now is a splendid opportunity to do the right thing for everyone concerned.

There’s no benefit for the US in having a communist dictatorship 90 miles from our border. Trump knows this; he know that defeating it through economic means will not only help liberate the Cuban people, it will be a huge blow to our home-grown Commies ideologically.
Win-win.

With no private property and no chance to earn money and keep it from government theft how does capitalism grow? There is not incentive for innovation, invention or growth when the state gobbles up the results. The Castro regime must change its policies. Currently, it appears they have opened the door to some capitalism in order to keep the entire communist-socialist miserable state from collapsing. I don’t know what Trumps’s plan entails, but I’m looking forward to his ideas. He may reimpose an embargo again or some other bargaining tool to be a force for freedom in Cuba.

The problem is that if you give the people freedom and free communications, the regime may very quickly have an uprising on their hands. And if they want to keep their power and money they have everything to lose and little to gain from our lofty ideals. This dictatorship has worked for 55 years because they rule with an iron fist. And because the Soviets supported them to keep them from starving.

Practically no one can live in Cuba entirely on the slave-wages paid by the state. 492 Pesos or $22 per month. Those very few high-level members of the Castro oligarchy who do live decent entirely on the regime wages are likely supplementing by illicit activities masked by their “official’ duties.

On the other end of the income spectrum, ‘campesinos’ manage to get through the month with only their government stipend by growing a good portion of their own food and living well below the standard of living. If they sell a portion of their crops at market prices, they are instantly ‘well off.’

And they all live very poorly in government housing. If you walk around Havana at night you’ll see that multiple generations of families share the same houses. Living in cramped conditions is why Havana is notorious for people being on the streets at all hours.

This 2015 article is rather interesting, you may enjoy it.

http://qz.com/452486/how-cuba-is-using-capitalism-to-save-socialism/

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