Cuba liberalises barber shops and beauty salons

[davek]

Fantastic points and right, right on the money.

The concessions to the US have been going on for a couple of years now, most low key and in the form of gestures that wouldn't register but each acknowledged over the water.

The Chinese model is something which would appeal massively to the masses and the government itself but it simply has to allow some degree of major foreign investment without restrictions/clauses. I'd loathe to see it spoilt by tacky tourist neon lights and commercial advertising like.

It would be a shame to lose their identity, but the generation comng through sound like they deffo want some of the lifestyles we take for granted. I suppose the Cubans have a choice of stumbling on for a few more years as a museum piece but I think they know the jigs up.

 

[Matt Damon]

The process had started earlier anyway with farming, there have been previously ran government farms that are now ran privately by Cubans, this was to help production though as the country was in need of more food production due to some bad luck, namely the world economy and it getting battered by three major hurricanes in 2008, hence the crop damage.

There were some other changes previously which allowed Cubans to rent a hotel room or hire a car, and own a mobile phone which was the real sign of progression. All small steps but huge in their impact.

I'm expecting more of these moves coming up in the near future.

If you haven't been, go, it's a superb place.

I guess being the resident capitalist on GOT... my perspective is - that without allowing Cubans to own something they can build themselves then they'll never be as productive as when the benefit of ownership is shared around to the extent its not actually personally benefiting anyone! subsidence living


Selfish gene and all that.

I'll never trust socialist governments like Castro's.

Because you can't get rid of them if you need to.


One of the good things about our democracy. Head of State (monach is NON POLITICAL) whilst the politicians we can vote out as needed.

So we get stability (important both economically and socially) along with slower changes in politics (which is also important. q.v. the two 5 year plans in the USSR, and Mao's disastrous "The Great Leap Forward" - sick irony - reforms on a whim, both of which KILLED MILLIONS due to famine!)

 

[johnnydawg68]

I don't trust any society where you can't get rid of the government periodically. Forget economics for a second and whether capitalism or socialism is the correct path (the correct answer is a mixture of both by the way). Why is ok to live in a society where your rights are derived from the government and not as Mr. Jefferson so aptly put it, inalienable?

To echo Matt Damon...A simple fact of life is that people take better care of things they own. Doesn't matter if it's a flat, car, or in a larger sense a society. People need to have a stake and a say in what happens to them.

 

[davek]

I guess being the resident capitalist on GOT... my perspective is - that without allowing Cubans to own something they can build themselves then they'll never be as productive as when the benefit of ownership is shared around to the extent its not actually personally benefiting anyone! subsidence living


Selfish gene and all that.

I'll never trust socialist governments like Castro's.

Because you can't get rid of them if you need to.


One of the good things about our democracy. Head of State (monach is NON POLITICAL) whilst the politicians we can vote out as needed.

So we get stability (important both economically and socially) along with slower changes in politics (which is also important. q.v. the two 5 year plans in the USSR, and Mao's disastrous "The Great Leap Forward" - sick irony - reforms on a whim, both of which KILLED MILLIONS due to famine!)

 

[Matt Damon]

You should have a read of Mr Dawkins Davek.

Not that I'm a believer but he's got some points.

The Selfish Gene, Dawkins explains how the selfish gene can also be a subtle gene. The world of the selfish gene revolves around savage competition, ruthless exploitation, and deceit, and yet, Dawkins argues, acts of apparent altruism do exist in nature. Bees, for example, will commit suicide when they sting to protect the hive, and birds will risk their lives to warn the flock of an approaching hawk. This revised edition of Dawkins' fascinating book contains two new chapters. One, entitled "Nice Guys Finish First," demonstrates how cooperation can evolve even in a basically selfish world. The other new chapter, entitled "The Long Reach of the Gene," which reflects the arguments presented in Dawkins' The Extended Phenotype, clarifies the startling view that genes may reach outside the bodies in which they dwell and manipulate other individuals and even the world at large. Containing a wealth of remarkable new insights into the biological world, the second edition once again drives home the fact that truth is stranger than fiction.

That emboldened bit counts you out Davek!

 

[davek]

You should have a read of Mr Dawkins Davek.

Not that I'm a believer but he's got some points.

The Selfish Gene, Dawkins explains how the selfish gene can also be a subtle gene. The world of the selfish gene revolves around savage competition, ruthless exploitation, and deceit, and yet, Dawkins argues, acts of apparent altruism do exist in nature. Bees, for example, will commit suicide when they sting to protect the hive, and birds will risk their lives to warn the flock of an approaching hawk. This revised edition of Dawkins' fascinating book contains two new chapters. One, entitled "Nice Guys Finish First," demonstrates how cooperation can evolve even in a basically selfish world. The other new chapter, entitled "The Long Reach of the Gene," which reflects the arguments presented in Dawkins' The Extended Phenotype, clarifies the startling view that genes may reach outside the bodies in which they dwell and manipulate other individuals and even the world at large. Containing a wealth of remarkable new insights into the biological world, the second edition once again drives home the fact that truth is stranger than fiction.

That emboldened bit counts you out Davek!

Selfish gene my arse. A complete hoax to suggest the red in tooth and claw society is somehow natural.

Dawkins is a tit of the worst order.

 

[chicoazul]

Selfish gene my arse. A complete hoax to suggest the red in tooth and claw society is somehow natural.

Dawkins is a tit of the worst order.

Agreed. He's a massive fraud.

The Damon lid does have a point about the productivity thing, the government sponsored production does suffer from low productivity, nature of the beast but then it's balanced by some positives.

As for the ownership thing, it's not really prevalent that things aren't took care of. On the contrary possessions are trophies. You can buy and sell a car in Cuba, you can buy and sell a house. They're mostly swapped though. A 1950's classic Chevy is cheaper to buy than a bog standard Lada too, if were doing fax.