What will happen to Cuba when Castro dies?

[KrazyHorse]

Kman, they waited until 91 because they didn't have to do so (at least not on full-scale) prior to that. I already said this.

[Kramerman]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Kman, they waited until 91 because they didn't have to do so (at least not on full-scale) prior to that. I already said this.

i know, but my question went deeper than that

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by Kramerman
note the enormously high corruption of Russia... i htink that has more to do with the comparability of the two more so than capitalism/communism

Belarus is just as corrupt as Russia. So the factor of corruption doesn't explain the mentioned difference. It just seems to be a fact that for a given amount of resources, communism cuts it better from the viewpoint of human development.

[DanS]

Russia is getting its **** together. Changing the entire economic system takes a lot of time and pain. Within 5 or 10 years, I doubt you'll look at Belarus so fondly. The amount of resources is never static.

[Ramo]

Castro cuba w/o boycott- makes $30 a year, $10 from the 'lucrative' organic cane sugar industry (by lucrative i mean that is hardly a multi biullion dollar market that can turn a nations economy around), because suagr is no where near as important a commodity as it once was back in precastro times. now electronics and other modern manufcatered goods as well as services dominated the money market, not agricultural commodities.

Cuba has a huge biotech industry (for a developing state). IIRC, biotech is Cuba's second biggest export market.

[Kramerman]

i know they had awesome medical care, but i was not aware they had good biotech. I didnt think they had much good tech in any field. but if the could *capitalize* on their biotech, then more power to them

[Ramo]

Well, their biotech industry is one of the reasons why they have awesome medical care, since local industry is pretty much the only way for them to get the necessary drugs.

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by DanS
Russia is getting its **** together. Changing the entire economic system takes a lot of time and pain. Within 5 or 10 years, I doubt you'll look at Belarus so fondly.

I hope so, and I don't look at the Byelorusian system fondly at all.

The amount of resources is never static.

True. That is why capitalism prevails. Nonetheless, it is unreasonable to deny the fact that for a given amount of wealth, communism does it better in terms of human development. We see it in the examples Cuba vs Latin America, Russia vs Belarus.

[The Vagabond]

Biotech... Good for them. However, will it endure foreign competition when the country opens up? Or, more importantly, will it endure capitalism? That's not obvious at all.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Kramerman
that explains the devilishly innovative Yugo.... 0 to 60 km/h in 5 minutes, baby

The Yugo was nothing more then a modestly updated fait which had been rebagged and made in Yugoslavia.

[Dinner]

KrazyHorse: We're talking about foreign investors coming in and buying partial ownership in Cuban state companies. Nearly all of these companies were formerly owned by US corporations and were stolen by the current communist government and now the communists want to sell them in hopes of raising capital.

Buying stolen goods is bad business and we have every right to punish those corporations which engage in it. Don't like it? Tough.

[Ramo]

Bautista's regime was practically giving away (in other words, stealing from the Cuban people) Cuban labor, land, and resources to American investors. Therefore, Castro's gov't had every right to punish these thieving businesses, correct?

[GePap]

If Cuba becomes a democracy after Castro falls, Cuba will NOT reemburse the exiles nor Americans companies that saw property nationalized. The only way the US will get this money is to put pressure on any new Cuban gov. to give the money.

[Dinner]

There is still the problem of the US and the embargo. I suspect some sort of partial ownership sharing system will be worked out.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Oerdin
KrazyHorse: We're talking about foreign investors coming in and buying partial ownership in Cuban state companies. Nearly all of these companies were formerly owned by US corporations and were stolen by the current communist government and now the communists want to sell them in hopes of raising capital.

Buying stolen goods is bad business and we have every right to punish those corporations which engage in it. Don't like it? Tough.

I don't think you understand. They're not stolen goods because the Cuban government says they're not. A national government has the final say in what is illegal and what is not within its own boundaries, with the possible modern exception of flagrant abuses of human rights (not property rights) and war crimes.

If the US companies didn't like that idea they shouldn't have bought land and equipment in Cuba, especially not while they were colluding with a thug like Batista. Now (40 years later) they're pimping out the US government to try and get their stuff back?

How would you like it if Europe put a pox on US goods because it "stole" all of its territory (excepting the original 13 colonies which were stolen first by Europe)? It's a stupid, extraterritorial claim.