Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
Wasn't it Joe Sobran who joked that if an earthquake destroyed New York, the subhed in the New York Times would be "Women and Minorities Hit Hardest"? I couldn't help but think of that when reading the caption to this New York Times story about Cubans getting ready to trade private property for the first time in decades:
Once the purchase and sale of property is allowed in Cuba, places like Havana may become more class-conscious.
Oh no! I hope that their dramatically improved quality of life across the board can help comfort them through this!
Or how about this paragraph?
The opportunities for profits and loans would be far larger than what Cuba’s small businesses offer, experts say, potentially creating the disparities of wealth that have accompanied property ownership in places like Eastern Europe and China.
Wealth disparities? Say it isn't so! Let's just keep everyone at the same level of horrific poverty to avoid this horrible trauma.
Back when I was studying economics, one of my favorite topics was comparing privatization plans of post-Communist countries. There's a reason that Czechoslovakia did much better moving to privatization than neighboring countries. Part of it was cultural and part of it was the scheme itself.
Certainly the story of Cuba's privatization will be an interesting one to follow, but I think the wealth "disparities" are a feature, and not a bug, of the system.
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Aug '10
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
Mollie,
Off topic, but regarding your BHTV diavlog, I just wanted to congratulate you for not checking your e-mail or falling asleep every time Wajahat Ali fell into his glossolalia of conflict resolution inter-faith diversispeak about "not helpful," "dialogue," "progress," community," "1.5 billion," etc.
You're a better person than I am Mrs. Hemingway.
Edited on Aug 3, 2011 at 6:41amOct '10
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
This is just the leftist obsession with equality over all else, including the well-being and happiness of the people (after all, inequality is worse than poverty, and poverty is of course far preferable. Right).
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
anon_academic: Mollie,
Off topic, but regarding your BHTV diavlog, I just wanted to congratulate you for not checking your e-mail or falling asleep every time Wajahat Ali fell into his glossolalia of conflict resolution inter-faith diversispeak about "not helpful," "dialogue," "progress," community," "1.5 billion," etc.
You're a better person than I am Mrs. Hemingway. · Aug 3 at 6:36am
Edited on Aug 03 at 06:41 am
Well, I wish I would have made better arguments there myself. Here's a link to that in case anyone's interested.
Jun '10
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
The plutocrats at the NYT are worried about wealth disparity in Cuba? Their hypocrisy knoweth no limits.
Jun '10
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
The previous disparity was a disparity in political connections. And under the present system, if the vacancy rates are extremely low, and they are, you're pretty much stuck where you are. Because, if people can't benefit from giving up their prime location, or bigger space, why would they move?
May '10
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
There is an excellent podcast on the BBC this week comparing the economy of Spain and that of Poland. The social democracies stew and the newly freed thrive in their new economy.
Mar '11
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.:
Wealth disparities? Say it isn't so! Let's just keep everyone at the same level of horrific poverty to avoid this horrible trauma.
Perhaps Mr Obama can be persuaded to move to Cuba, and try again there, as his fundamental change ain't working so well in the US.
May '11
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
The economy of Cuba operates around the officially tolerated presence of dollar stores which are different from our dollar stores because that doesn't describe the price of merchandise but the currency required to shop there. If you want anything not handed out by the government, such as something as basic as cosmetics, you have to buy it from the dollar store. I believe the dollar stores were introduced when the Soviet Union collapsed and Cuba began to starve, literally. To have american dollars you must either have american relatives or work in tourism (prostitution being the most prevalent tourism occupation). There is significant racial stratification in the economy for the same reason. The vast majority of the relatives sending money back to Cuba are white.
Feb '11
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
"the disparities of wealth that have accompanied property ownership in places like Eastern Europe and China"
Of course, when socialism ruled in Eastern Europe and China, there were no disparities in wealth. The political elite lived exactly like everyone else, waited in the same lines, suffered through the same limited diets, etc.
Aug '10
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Well, I wish I would have made better arguments there myself. Here's a link to that in case anyone's interested. · Aug 3 at 6:52am
The only thing I noticed was you let it pass when he used SPLC stats as reflecting objective trends rather than being heavily skewed by their scaremongering fundraising needs. Aside from that though you did good. I especially appreciated how you noted areas of agreement and differentiated reasonable arguments (Mark Steyn?) from more excessive stuff.
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
anon_academic
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Well, I wish I would have made better arguments there myself. Here's a link to that in case anyone's interested. · Aug 3 at 6:52am
The only thing I noticed was you let it pass when he used SPLC stats as reflecting objective trends rather than being heavily skewed by their scaremongering fundraising needs. Aside from that though you did good. I especially appreciated how you noted areas of agreement and differentiated reasonable arguments (Mark Steyn?) from more excessive stuff. · Aug 3 at 8:04am
Then maybe I was asleep! SPLC being taken seriously by anyone is one of my pet peeves.
Oct '10
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
anon_academic: Mollie,
Off topic, but regarding your BHTV diavlog, I just wanted to congratulate you for not checking your e-mail or falling asleep every time Wajahat Ali fell into his glossolalia of conflict resolution inter-faith diversispeak about "not helpful," "dialogue," "progress," community," "1.5 billion," etc.
You're a better person than I am Mrs. Hemingway. · Aug 3 at 6:36am
Edited on Aug 03 at 06:41 am
Well, I wish I would have made better arguments there myself. Here's a link to that in case anyone's interested. · Aug 3 at 6:52am
I wish you'd talked about the difference between Islamism and Islam, though. And how Islamists take advantage of Western biogotphobia to exploit Muslims, and all that.
I'm a little sick of the "exploitation is totally ok, so long as it isn't by white people" attitude of the elite.
Jun '10
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
Thank you EJ, good stuff/
May '10
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
Yes, you can't have wealth disparities until you have wealth.
Apr '11
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
While the main article is filled with this jaw dropping lunacy, try reading the comments section for some real laughs. One guy laments the property rights issue claiming that this will cause poverty to return to Cuba where people will become slaves of capital. Only one comment even replies to this guy, by saying, yes poverty never really left, and yes, the poor in America have better standards of life than poor in other countries, but he is sympathetic to the notion that we are all slaves of capital. Another guy laments that this will unfortunately give back the gains from la revolucion!! No one pointed out the craziness of the "inequality" brought up by Molly.
Truly amazing stuff. Have to laugh at who's reading "all the news that's fit to print".
Jun '10
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
In Capitalism and Politics the Marriage from Hell, I wrote that the problem with wealth is that we misconceive it. We tend to think of wealth as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet sized bank accounts. What wealth really is is the ability to feed, clothe, and educate your children. The reason American is, as a society, wealthy is because the vast majority of its citizens can do this not so easy thing.
May '11
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
Cuba has the highest literacy rate in this portion of the hemisphere if not the planet. Education is not a problem there, nor supposedly is health care. Feeding the citizens has been more complicated.
Jun '10
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
Southern Pessimist, what is almost entirely forgotten is that prior to that creep Castro taking over, Cuba had the third or fourth most prosperous economy in the the Americas, which means from the North pole to Tierra del Furgo. So all that creep and his brother did was create the poorest economy in the Americas. An example Hugo Chavez is emulating apace.
May '11
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
We don't disagree at all. I was trying to point out that although there are still thousands starving there, they survive through an obscene system of government handouts and a quasi-free market/black market economy based on American dollars and everything that they have to do to get those.
Dec '10
Re: Private Property Comes To Cuba; Women And Minorities Hit Hardest
I imagine title insurance will be, errr, expedited. Otherwise, nearly every transaction would find that the lawfull title belonged to somebody in Miami.