https://twitter.com/i/status/1415092340008660995
News that I missed, courtesy of The Babylon Bee:
MIAMI, FL—While on his way to a summer sociology course at the University of Miami, local college freshman Eddard Pollyton noticed a Cuban American man sitting on a bench. He took the time to lecture the man, who had escaped socialism on a raft when he was young, on why socialism is actually good and how he knows a lot more about socialism than people from socialist countries.
“Greetings!” Pollyton said. “I’m Eddard, he/him. I see from your skin color—which is the most important thing about you—that you are Cuban. Pretty sad how those Cubans aren’t appreciating the great social programs they have right now, am I right?”
The man stared dumbfounded as the student went on and on about private ownership of the means of production, the plight of the proletariat, and the need for the workers to unite and work for the common good. He explained to the man who had nearly starved to death as a child and only survived because his parents had put him on a raft and dared a dangerous sea voyage across the Gulf of Mexico that Cubans have some of the best healthcare, free food and medicine, and literacy programs in the world.
Finally, the man had heard enough. “Get out of here. You young people have no idea what socialism is like, man.”
Go here to read the rest.
#11Julio Santiago of Cuba to the East of the country we still getting image and video now because the government shutdown the internet #Cuba #SOSCuba #CubaLibre pic.twitter.com/iNzqFhspep
— Yusdiel Rodriguez 🇺🇸🇨🇺🇲🇽 (@Ortodoxo6) July 13, 2021
Even if the Cuban people are able to topple their government, they have a bit of a problem: do they remember how property rights work? Do they understand how markets work?
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One of the things that has most distressed me about Catholicism is that most Catholic nations seem to not get how all that works, and the corruption/socialism runs so very deep. (Granted, at this point, for anyone in the US to criticise anyone else is a lot like the pot calling the kettle black.) Our religious leaders especially seem to think all the “free stuff” that government “gives” us (education, health care, old age benefits, etc) is actually “free.”
Even if the Cuban people are able to topple their government, they have a bit of a problem: do they remember how property rights work? Do they understand how markets work?
Cubans are some of the more entrepreneurial people on earth as they have demonstrated in Florida. A free Cuba will be flooded with investment money and Cuban Americans ready to help in the transition.
A free Cuba will be flooded with investment money and Cuban Americans ready to help in the transition.
You need a land registry, a body of real property law, a body of contract law, a body of commercial law, a body of law on banking and finance, a body of law on insurance, functioning municipal and civil courts, bailiffs to enforce court orders. Cuba’s an island, so admiralty law will be consequential as well. One of my employers over the years had a stack of volumes on ‘uniform laws’, which I think are model codes of various sorts published as guides to state legislators. A Spanish translation of these might be a point of departure.
I think one thing the experience of Eastern Europe suggests is that state enterprises should be sold off piecemeal rather than pell mell. Not sure what the implications of that in re the planning apparat. Ideally, you get to the point where it’s just transportation hubs and toll roads, utilities, municipal amenities, some portions of medical care, long term care, and schooling; and a planning apparat whose concerns are limited to land use and public works. Takes some time to get there – perhaps 15 or 20 years.
The government and people of the United States should support in every way possible the attempt of the Cuban people to rid themselves of communist socialist tyranny, short of sending ground troops, even as we face the internal threat of a takeover from these same ideological forces. They must shed their own blood for their freedom. Although I feel confident these Cuban Patriots would make great citizens, we must resist the effort, when it comes, of the tyrannical Cuban government to rid itself of opposition by exporting to the United States it’s opponents. Cuba will need such patriots to rebuild their nation.
The naturalized Cuban Americans and their siblings born here that I know are lawyers, economists, architects, dentists and doctors. Many have travelled to Cuba obstensibly as part of religious entourages. Others on art trips. I feel confident that planning for a free Cuba with a democratic government has been in the works for quite awhile.