Quote:
Originally Posted by itshotinvegas
Castro shut down the casinos almost as soon as he took power, and trade was heavily restricted, and it's been like that ever since, i.e. government is primary seller of goods.
The problem with the people who rail against the embargoes is, they don't understand the extent of the corruption when it comes to goods. I saw this first hand in Afghanistan. Government aid and US aid was hoarded by warlords, only x amount of each dollar actually got to the people. You compare that with Walmart who essentially puts $0.97 of every dollar back into the economy. Not to mention, the Cuban government stole US petroleum factories.
It would have been interesting to see if Cuba could have transformed itself, similar to Las Vegas. Probably not, because there was no real rule of law, similar to the FBI, just shut down local corruption.
To be clear I am not arguing about the 'las Vegas of the Caribbean' angle specifically. I am arguing that due to the proximity, Cuba even with Castro (and not being Las vegas like) could well have been a model of success.
There were many paths to success with such abundant wealth next door wanting to visit and not only for Las Vegas light.
I am not claiming the Castro regime would have navigated that in a way more similar to Xi and China's current path as opposed to Putin's and Russia. We do not know.
Xi is taking the long term greedy path. Collect all the power, but ensure enough Fruits spread to the middle class and invest heavily so your country can grow bigger and stronger. He gets richer via all ships rising and everyone in his country (in that singular area) is better off for it.
Putin's path is to take as much out as possible thus destroying long term value and viability of the nation but maximizing his short term gains. A Russia with a Xi in charge would have focused on making Russia, post reformation the most vital country in Europe and Asia. The literal EurAsia bridge. And they had the work force eager to work hard to achieve that if given an open system to do so.
So again, my point is not to say which way Castro might have went given so much wealth flowing into the island?? Maybe he just wants it all, despite never being able to spend it. Or maybe he sees he will have 'enough' even if he invests heavily in the middle class and choses that.
What the US feared was the latter. A communist state that succeeded in building a good economy and middle class on their doorstep. They would much rather interfere and deliberately make it more akin to Venezuela and then when citizens flee as refuges to refuse them while pointing fingers at the big bad communists!!!
(and again I am not saying communists are good or the system would produce some good, but pointing out the US would not allow that question to be answered out of fear it might)