Matt Collins
09-04-2009, 09:34 PM
Cuban Government Tries Market Reforms
http://origin.ih.constantcontact.com/fs073/1102236309048/img/155.jpg?a=1102692943955
Cuba's government is trying to save its collapsing socialist economy -- by opening the door to markets in agriculture.
For years Cuba boasted of its state-run farming system. However, that system is not only despotic, it has been a disaster. Despite excellent farming conditions, production is far below expectations, and vast acres of fertile land go uncultivated.
In desperation, the government last year began giving idle state farmland to private farmers and farm cooperatives. Owners are allowed to pay workers based on results, not according to state-mandated wage scales. Hard work, innovation, and entrepreneurship are rewarded.
The results, predictably, have been dramatic, according to (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102692943955&s=57420&e=0019lHeTjL-Jx0hJ40fNoDFxzaUjYWdnjZo_dSmgo7S5rT8hVFu_J0nSbRktv aLQnSw3wXstD4K7XMUazt3tPe-bWqxQrbPLhLIJ1Qb2WLU6f4919oWfUCtA0T7cK7dq5QUyyszYE DCpd70mDcjmfZ-ICLw3R4pxkyM) a fascinating article by St. Petersburg Times Latin American correspondent David Adams.
Though tilling only about a fourth of Cuban land, burdened by numerous idiotic regulations, and forced to turn over some of their production to the Cuban government at half the market price, private sources already produce nearly 60 percent of Cuban crops and livestock, according to the Cuban government. And the program is just getting under way.
Ironically, the Cuban government is trying to define this move towards farm privatization as... true socialism.
"The last 50 years have shown that private farmers are more socialist than the state," said Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a former state economic adviser and a critic of the current Cuban government. "State farms are anti-socialist. The only thing they socialized is loss-making."
"The land is there! Here are the Cubans. Let's see if we work or not, if we produce or not!" exhorted Cuban President Rául Castro at a rally in July.
Viva La Revolución!
http://origin.ih.constantcontact.com/fs073/1102236309048/img/155.jpg?a=1102692943955
Cuba's government is trying to save its collapsing socialist economy -- by opening the door to markets in agriculture.
For years Cuba boasted of its state-run farming system. However, that system is not only despotic, it has been a disaster. Despite excellent farming conditions, production is far below expectations, and vast acres of fertile land go uncultivated.
In desperation, the government last year began giving idle state farmland to private farmers and farm cooperatives. Owners are allowed to pay workers based on results, not according to state-mandated wage scales. Hard work, innovation, and entrepreneurship are rewarded.
The results, predictably, have been dramatic, according to (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102692943955&s=57420&e=0019lHeTjL-Jx0hJ40fNoDFxzaUjYWdnjZo_dSmgo7S5rT8hVFu_J0nSbRktv aLQnSw3wXstD4K7XMUazt3tPe-bWqxQrbPLhLIJ1Qb2WLU6f4919oWfUCtA0T7cK7dq5QUyyszYE DCpd70mDcjmfZ-ICLw3R4pxkyM) a fascinating article by St. Petersburg Times Latin American correspondent David Adams.
Though tilling only about a fourth of Cuban land, burdened by numerous idiotic regulations, and forced to turn over some of their production to the Cuban government at half the market price, private sources already produce nearly 60 percent of Cuban crops and livestock, according to the Cuban government. And the program is just getting under way.
Ironically, the Cuban government is trying to define this move towards farm privatization as... true socialism.
"The last 50 years have shown that private farmers are more socialist than the state," said Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a former state economic adviser and a critic of the current Cuban government. "State farms are anti-socialist. The only thing they socialized is loss-making."
"The land is there! Here are the Cubans. Let's see if we work or not, if we produce or not!" exhorted Cuban President Rául Castro at a rally in July.
Viva La Revolución!